Mark Martin needs some help to make the Chase, focused instead on improving Hendrick team’s performance
Mark Martin won five races and finished second in points last year, but has struggled this season. // Sam Cranston, NASCAR Illustrated
They haven’t gone as far as placing a “help wanted’ ad in the classified section of the local newspaper, but Mark Martin and crew chief Alan Gustafson know they’ll need some assistance if the Hendrick Motorsports team is to qualify for this year’s Chase For The Sprint Cup.
“Anything can happen,” Martin said, while admitting that, “where we are now, it would be a surprise to make up that kind of ground in two races.”
Martin heads into this weekend’s Emory Healthcare 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway 14th in the Sprint Cup Series standings, trailing 12th-place Clint Bowyer (Richard Childress Racing) by 101 and Jamie McMurray (Earnhardt Ganassi Racing) by just a single point.
Atlanta and the following week’s Cup race at Richmond complete the 26 races that will determine the 12 Chase teams.
“It would come at Clint’s expense, for sure,” Martin said. “But it’s important for us to continue work on trying to get our cars faster and get stronger and better as a team. That’s the most important thing on our agenda.
“If we were able to go out and win Atlanta, then we might think going into Richmond that we could get back in the Chase. But realistically, it seems like we’ve got some work to do before we’re going to be a contender to win races.”
Few would have thought that would be the case after Martin scored five wins a year ago, qualified for the Chase and finished second to Hendrick teammate Jimmie Johnson.
Yet Martin, who will be making his 50th career start at Atlanta, is one of eight winning drivers from 2009 that have thus far failed to find victory lane this year. Finishes of fourth, sixth and fifth at Phoenix, Texas and Talladega allowed him to climb as high as sixth in the standings, but following a 25th-place finish at Richmond in May, Martin’s been 10th or worse in points. And he’s been on the bubble, or just outside of 12th place, for more than two months with only one top-10 in his previous 11 starts.
“Really, that’s more important than talking about the Chase,” he said. “That’s the most important thing to our race team right now – to get back into the form we were in last year. If we don’t, then whether or not we were in the Chase wouldn’t make a difference. Last year we were a contender. We made the Chase, and we were a contender to win the championship. Right now, we need to get in that form.”
Finishes of 28th at Michigan and 23rd at Bristol in recent weeks, combined with Bowyer’s 13th and fourth-place efforts, have turned what was a marginal 10-point lead over the RCR driver into a three-figure deficit.
Worse yet, another player has muscled his way into the picture. McMurray, nearly forgotten in July, slipped past Martin thanks to his team’s recent resurgence.
“Last week, I thought we were still in close enough proximity, that it was under our control,” said Gustafson. “Regardless of what the competition did we could still get in by running good.
“I don’t feel like it’s in our control now. We’re going to have to get some help from the guys in front of us. One hundred points is enough that even if we won the next two races and they run well, we still won’t get in.
“We need the guys in front of us to give us some help, and that could easily happen. But then we need to be able to capitalize on that. We haven’t been able to do that for a while.
“That’s my main goal – to figure out how we can run good and we need to get there as soon as possible.”
Two of Martin’s 40 career Cup wins came at Atlanta, the first in 1991 and another three years later. He also has two poles as well as 14 top-five finishes there.
