Mark Martin always in wrong place, at wrong time
No matter what Mark Martin does in Sunday’s race at Homestead, if Jimmie Johnson finishes 25th or better, he clinches his fourth straight NASCAR Cup championship.
Martin has a great chance to finish second in the standings. If that happens, it would be the fifth time in his career he’s been the runner-up.
Martin has never won a NASCAR Cup championship, and in the eyes of some, that is a failure on his part. Yet if not for a weird set of circumstances, and terrible timing on his part, Martin might have not just one, but several championships.
You’ve probably already read or heard stories about how if Martin had posted the type of performance he has had in this year’s Chase For The Sprint Cup in any of the five other Chases since the format began in 2004, he would have won a couple of championships. He has performed extremely well in this year’s Chase, but he ran into the Jimmie Johnson/Chad Knaus/Team No. 48 buzzsaw, a juggernaut on the greatest roll in NASCAR history.
And that has been the story of Martin’s career. His greatest years have coincided with the peak years of the sport’s greatest legends.
Consider those four previous runner-up finishes:
• 1990: Martin finished second to Dale Earnhardt, who was at or near his career peak, by only 26 points (and we won’t even get into the controversial points penalty against Martin early that season that would have made the difference in that championship race).
• 1994: Martin finished second again to Earnhardt. This one wasn’t close. Earnhardt was at the height of his power, winning his record-tying seventh championship.
• 1998: Martin came in second to Jeff Gordon, who was hitting his career apex. Gordon beat Martin by a whopping 364 points, but to put that in perspective, the third-place driver in the standings, Dale Jarrett – who by all standards had a great year – was 345 points behind Martin.
• 2002: Martin once again had a great year, only to be outdone by one of the sport’s all-time greats having his own incredible season. Tony Stewart won the first of his two championships, beating Martin by a scant 38 points.
If Martin finishes second in this year’s Chase, that would be five career runner-up finishes in the standings, behind four of the sport’s greatest drivers, at or near their absolute career peak: Earnhardt (twice), Gordon, Stewart and Johnson.
Martin has 40 career NASCAR Cup victories (16th on the all-time list), and he has also finished third in the standings four times, and fourth in the standings three times. His legacy as one of the sport’s all-time greatest drivers is secure, championship or not.
Yet maybe, after a career marked by bad timing and hard luck, he’s due for a big break Sunday.
