In a 2012 interview with NASCAR reporter Jeff Gluck, Kyle Petty called Mark Martin “one of the fairest guys” he’d ever raced. Petty made an interesting quip about racing against Martin and likened the experience to wrestling bears at the fair, where one would be left unscathed as long as they kept their nose clean.Petty and Martin raced against each other throughout the 1980s and the 1990s. Both had enduring careers in the Cup Series, with Petty lasting an impressive 30-year stint, while Martin went on for one more season to log 31 years.When Gluck asked Petty who was the 'cleanest driver' he'd ever raced, Petty had only one name in mind."Mark. Mark Martin. Probably one of the fairest guys you will ever, ever, ever race against," he said via Sbnation.com"Many years ago, there used to be bears at the fair, and you could go in and wrestle the bear. And if you’d just sit there, the bear would just sit there. But the harder you wrestled the bear, the harder the bear wrestled you – and that’s the way Mark was. If you raced him clean, he’d race you clean. And if you wanted to race him dirty, Mark could come back and he could put a bumper to you and give you exactly what you gave him. But he expected you to be fair to him," Kyle Petty added.Mark Martin went on to win 40 Cup Series races and is widely regarded as the greatest driver never to win a championship. He retired in 2013 and was later inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame in 2017.When Mark Martin praised Kyle Petty for Rockingham dominanceLast year, Mark Martin shared Kyle Petty's track record at Rockingham Speedway and praised him for his dominance at the D-shaped oval. The stat revealed Petty's win in the 1992 race at 'The Rock', his fourth straight pole and third win in six races at the track."@kylepetty was unstoppable at Rockingham in this era. He hooked the bottom like nobody else," Martin wrote via X.Notably, Martin secured his first-ever Cup Series win at Rockingham Speedway in 1989. The win came with three races remaining in the season and marked Jack Rousch's first-ever Cup win as a team owner.Petty won at the track the following year and repeated the feat in 1991. He leveraged a late-race caution and took the lead to secure his fourth career win, his only triumph that season.Notably, Kyle Petty's father, Richard Petty, also competed in the race and finished 15th, one spot behind Mark Martin.