CUP: Martin Wants Performance

Sprint Cup

CUP: Martin Wants Performance

Mark Martin will drive in the NASCAR Sprint cup Series 2011 series for Hendrick Motorsports...

Mike Hembree | Posted September 07, 2010 Charlotte, NC

Mark Martin is currently in 15th place in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series point standings. (Photo Getty Images)

For the first time as a full-time racer, Mark Martin is probably going to be driving outside the spotlight when the Chase for the Sprint Cup starts next week in Loudon, N.H.

PHOTOS: 2010 Sprint Cup Chase Contenders

Martin, who ran partial schedules in 2007 and 2008, has been in the Chase every other year since the new format began in 2004. He finished fourth in 2004 and ’05, ninth in ’06 and second last year.

With only Saturday night’s Air Guard 400 remaining before the Chase cutoff, Martin, in 15th in points, has a very slim chance to make NASCAR’s version of the playoffs. He is 147 points behind 12th-place Clint Bowyer, and, even if Bowyer should make a major stumble, Ryan Newman and Jamie McMurray stand in front of Martin to take advantage.

Martin is not going to suggest that the fact that he is almost certain to miss the Chase doesn’t bother him. But the matter that concerns him more is the fact that he has not run well all season. After winning five times last year, he is winless this season. Worse, he has rarely been competitive.

“Certainly, being in it [the Chase] is big,” Martin said Tuesday. “For me, if we were to have squeaked into it and continued to run like we’ve run the last three or four races, then it wouldn’t make our season. At the end of the day, you still have to run good to really feel good about yourself.

“If you run good and you miss the Chase, then that’s a crying shame. That’s what we were faced with last year. It would have been a destroying season to miss the Chase last year. We knew if we could get in it we could win it and nearly did.”

Although no one wants to miss the Chase, a bright spot for those not racing for the championship is the opportunity to experiment with new concepts.

“Our focus is to get back up on the level that we were on last year,” Martin said. “This allows us to go out there and take chances on different hardware and different setups than we would have if we were in the hunt for the championship.”

Martin said he does not have a good explanation for why his team was so successful last season but is relatively mediocre this year. He finished last year with 21 top 10s. He has only seven this season.

“The target is a moving target and always will be,” Martin said. “We were hitting the bull’s eye last year and haven’t found the bull’s eye this year. We can do it again. We’ll just keep digging until we find it.

Mark Martin remains winless in 2010. (Photo: LAT Photographic)

“We never saw it coming. We are the same people that were doing this a year ago and doing it so well. You have to look at the positive things and not focus on the negative.

“Expectations are really tough to deal with when you don’t meet them. That’s why I’ve tried so hard to limit and keep my expectations in check, but even as much as I do I couldn’t have ever been prepared for having as tough a year as what we’ve had. But we’re the same people, and we’re working just the same as we were a year ago.

“At the end of the day, as devastating as it is to not run good at the race track, you still go home the same way. You go to bed that night and get up the next morning, and it’s a new day. That’s the way every day is, no matter what the result. You have to work hard and have to do the best you can to manage all those emotions, whether they be the highest peak or the lowest valley. If you let those get to you, then it changes the outcome and certainly makes a difference in how you’re able to perform and deal with situations and work with people.”

Mike Hembree is NASCAR Editor for SPEED.com and has been covering motorsports for 28 years. He has written several books on NASCAR, including "NASCAR: The Definitive History of America's Sport" and "Then Tony Said To Junior: The Best NASCAR Stories Ever Told". He is a six-time winner of the National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year Award.

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Mike Hembree

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