Thrill of Chase a season-long ride for Martin
by Michael Vega
The Boston Globe,MA,September 22

Let's get one thing straight about Mark Martin: The 45-year-old NASCAR driver is no dark horse in the Chase for the Nextel Cup.

"You guys can call him a dark horse, but I don't," said Jeff Gordon, who is third in points after Sunday's Sylvania 300 at New Hampshire International Speedway in Loudon.

At the poker table, that is.

Mark Martin talks with Brian Vickers and Jimmie Johnson Thrill of Chase a season-long ride for Martin

Tony Stewart, who won his first NASCAR title two years ago after being relentlessly pursued by Martin, bluntly concurred with Gordon.

"Anybody who thinks he's a dark horse in the championship is the biggest fool I've ever seen in my life," said Stewart. "If you add talent, desire, and determination, it can't overcome a DNF (did not finish), but it can carry you an awful long way in 10 weeks."

After he blew an engine seven laps into the season-opening Daytona 500, finishing last in the 43-car field, Martin struggled to navigate his No. 6 Viagra Ford into the top 10, spending the first 24 weeks on the outside looking in. A victory June 6 at Dover, Del., however, jump-started his season and gave Martin hope to contend for one of the coveted 10 spots in the championship chase.

"Every time we'd get up to about 12th and say, 'Ah, this is going to work out for us,' we'd have another failure and drop back to 15th or 16th," Martin said. "The problem with that was we weren't racing against mediocre teams. I think any one of the guys who broke into that 10 were championship contenders."

But, as the final qualifying event for the spots neared, the pressure began mounting.

Two of Martin's crew members were threatened with their jobs by car owner Jack Roush because of a transmission problem that led to an engine failure at Pocono, the week after Martin's win at Dover. Then Martin committed a strategic error at Bristol Motor Speedway Aug. 28 that led to a 13th-place finish and cost him about 30 points.

As he ran on the lead lap, Martin tried to pit - the pit stalls at Bristol are on the front and back stretch of the cramped .533-mile bullring - but missed the pit exit. Martin was forced to crawl around the track on pit road, making sure not to violate NASCAR's 45-mile-per-hour speed limit, and fell one lap behind.

The stress built off the track as well. He was 12th in the points with two races remaining before the cut when Hurricane Frances threatened Martin's home in Daytona Beach, Fla. In a plane he piloted, Martin evacuated his wife, Arlene, and their son, Matt, bringing them with him on a Labor Day weekend trip to California Speedway for the Pop Secret 500.

"I know if I scared my wife she wouldn't fly with me again, so that's a lot of pressure," Martin said with a chuckle. "But I had that on me as well as the obvious things, knowing I had brain fade at Bristol and cost myself about 30 points. I, just like everyone else on the team, didn't want my 30 to be the ones that cost us.

"You talk about pressure? We had pressure this year."

It continued to intensify, but Martin overcome it with rock-solid performances, recording top fives in four of the last five races leading up to the Chase. His third-place effort at California enabled Martin to climb into the top 10 for the first time this season.

With Hurricane Ivan roiling in the tropics, Martin and his family flew from California to Arkansas, then to Charlotte, N.C., before arriving in Richmond, Va., for the Chevy Rock 'n' Roll 400, the final qualifying event.

"I'm embarrassed to say that I'm very much a creature of habit and my routine is very important to me," said Martin, who entered the 26th race with a scant 25-point lead over Jamie McMurray. "And that really wore me down the week before Richmond. I just didn't rest well. Part of it was the anxiety of all the things going on in front of me and part of it was just that I like to sleep in my own bed.

"I really like to be home three days a week, and if I can do that, I can handle this job perfectly. But if I can't do that, it wears me down. I just rest better in my own habitat."

Needing one more solid performance to cement a spot in the final 10, the weary Martin arrived in Richmond as a sentimental favorite. He was, after all, a four-time runner-up in the championship race - to the late Dale Earnhardt in 1990 (26 points behind) and 1994 (444), to Gordon in 1998 (364), and to Stewart (38) in 2002. Many wanted to see him make the cut.

And he did, finishing fifth to land the eighth spot among the top 10 qualifiers for the championship chase.

"I know the guy had to race his tail off to get there," Gordon said. "I know this for a fact, because I hit him in the bumper one time. I didn't mean to do it, but he did one hell of a job saving that race car. I don't know how he didn't spin out, because I drilled him.

"We were trying to pass a lapped car and I got into the back of him. That's the kind of talent that he has and the kind of effort that was put out to get him into the top 10."

Asked if he felt as good about finishing fifth in that race as he did about any of his 34 victories, Martin paused and said, "I don't know. I felt pretty good. It was a big relief to us. A huge relief."

"I would love to see him win a championship because he deserves it and he's been so close," said Gordon, a four-time champion. "He's been one of the great talents that our sport has ever had and, for whatever reason, he's been so close but hasn't been able to pull it off.

"Of course I would love to win a (fifth) championship. But if I can't win it, and Jimmie can't win it, then I hope Mark wins it."

Said Stewart, "He pushed me hard, real hard (in 2002). I think that's what was so gratifying about seeing Mark get in, is knowing how hard he's worked to try and win a championship. The fact it was Mark who I ran against in 2002 is what made it so special for me."

It was gratifying for Martin to hear the praise from his peers.

"The respect of your competitors has to mean more than any trophy you can ever get, and Tony's given me the most respect of any newcomer that's come in," Martin said. "I want one of those trophies just as bad as my fans want me to have one, don't get me wrong. But it's real special to me to have that (respect). You can't buy that respect. You earn it over a long period of time.

"That means more to me than anything I've ever done in my career; to have people who I have to race against - really hard, and sometimes have to steal their thunder - and still have them wish good things for me, you know, means I must have done a few things right."

He's breathing a little easier, and the next 10 races will be fun, he says. The Roush Racing team has built him "two or three cars that I really, really like," and what was once a 389-point deficit behind Gordon has been reduced to 35.

"He's been in this situation more times than anybody I know," Stewart said. "He hasn't been through a winning season, obviously, but a guy who runs second knows how to get himself in that position. He's groomed himself to be a champion, but it just hasn't happened.

"Trust me, the bit's in his mouth and he's ready to run."