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We can now add former NASCAR star Mark Martin to the ever-growing list of famous people who claim to have had a bizarre encounter with a UFO. And his encounter sounds a whole lot like a lot of other UFO encounters that have been experienced by pilots of planes.
Martin, who was active in the NASCAR Cup Series from 1982 to 2012, says his UFO encounter occurred while he was flying home to Daytona from a NASCAR race up north.
“There’s been a lot, going back to where we started [the conversation], the crazy 2024, lot of UFO sightings, lot of drones, a lot of speculation, not a lot of answers though,” Chase Holden said in an interview this week with Mark Martin. “And it ties into you, which, blew my mind last night, when I did get the message. But apparently in the late 90s you had a UFO sighting. You experienced a UFO. What what happened? What’s this story?”
“We were coming home, just me and my pilot in my jet,” Martin explained. “We were coming back from one of the northeast races. Either Loudon or, couldn’t be Pocono. I don’t know if it was Loudon or if it was Dover, or where it was. We were coming home. It was late though, that’s the thing I don’t understand, but it was dark. Dark, dark. We fly at 45,000 feet, but going over Jacksonville going home to Daytona where I lived, you know, they would bring you down to 18,000 feet or so.
“We were descending. For some reason, a lot of times after the race I would get in the back and let my – was a single pilot aircraft so I’d let my pilot fly me home and I’d sit back there and rehash the race or something or just relax. But this particular time, and I did it from time to time, I wanted to fly. So I’m in the pilot seat and Jason Simpson was my co-pilot. He was in the right seat and we’re descending through Jacksonville about 19,000 feet and there’s no stars out.
“So, it’s black. Everything except the lights in Daytona, Orlando, and you know, Miami,” Martin continued, explaining his strange encounter with a UFO. “You can see the lights down at Miami even. And I see a light that is solid white light, looks solid light that’s not flashing, and that could only be like a landing light is the only thing that would make sense would be a spotlight looking light like that, and it would have to be far away because I couldn’t see the green and red wing tip lights. Because they got a green one and a red one and the red one is on the right. That way you know if a plane’s coming toward you or going away. See? You get me? Which side the lights on. So none none of that. Didn’t see any of that.
“So, I keep it in my eye, I keep checking up there and checking up there and it gets closer and closer, I didn’t say anything to Jason I’m just flying along. Finally, I just start, I fixate on it. Plane’s on autopilot … and so I’m fixated on it and it gets closer and closer and closer and then it gets like, oh my God, we’re going to hit that!
“And I grabbed the yolk and kicked it off autopilot and was getting ready to jerk the plane to the right and Jason was like, ‘What?’ and I said, ‘Look!’ And when he looked, he pulled out a camera, he had a camera on him, and he pulled out a camera and put it up there in the windshield and tried to take a picture because he saw it! We both saw this and almost, we thought we were going to hit it. Then it starts pulling away, gradually pulling away, slowly pulling away.”
Here’s the kicker: when Mark Martin contacted air traffic control about the UFO they had encountered they said Martin’s plane was the only aircraft in the area.