Who will share No. 5 Cup ride with Martin in 2010?

By Rea White - Associate Editor
Friday, July 04, 2008

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Mark Martin has relished his role as a mentor to young drivers in the past few seasons. He'll continue that job at Hendrick Motorsports, where he'll drive the No. 5 NASCAR Sprint Cup entry full time for one season then share it with a young driver beginning in 2010.
   
While it's certainly premature to be tabbing a driver to take the wheel with him in 2010, the leading candidates are Brad Keselowski, who is driving the JR Motorsport Nationwide Series No. 88 full time this season, and Hendrick development driver Landon Cassill, who is driving in the Nationwide Series part time.
   
"It’s really, when you look at it, we’re only halfway through ‘08," team owner Rick Hendrick said Friday as Martin's hiring was announced at Daytona International Speedway. "We’ve got the rest of this year and ’09. I’ve got two young guys in Brad Keselowski and Landon Cassill that are coming along really fast. One is 24, one is [18]. And there are other options out there, too.

"We didn’t think we were going to end up here, so I’m not going to speculate too much on what I’m going to do. I hope I’m here in 2010 first of all. We’ve got lots of options. We’re going to take it a day at a time, a year at a time."
   
Hendrick says that the team has two drivers that could step up and that they're are going to wait and see what happens.

"We’ve got two and we’re just going to see," he said. "We have them under contract and we’ll see how things shake out. But I think Brad’s got a lot of talent and he’s really impressed me, smart. And I think a guy like Mark Martin has spent time with Landon, which Landon is really coming on. When you start thinking about 2010, we have a year and a half of racing before we have to make that decision."
   
Martin, 49, says he has no preference which driver he will work with in the future. He raves about the talent of both and says it's too early to be locking into either one of them.
   
"They're both incredible," Martin said. "… Landon Cassill really, really impresses me. He's only 18 years old. You don't realize he's just a kid. He's 18 years old. Very impressive young man and he's shown some great progress in the last three or four races. I think if Rick gets him some regular seat time instead of irregular seat time, he certainly has potential to be a Cup driver."
   
Martin says that Keselowski is ready to go right now, possibly on a full-time basis.
   
"I don't know, I think he could do it full time," Martin said. "They like to bring them along a little more gradual than that, but Brad's very, very far along in his driving, in his maturity. He's very solid. I'm incredibly impressed with how solid he's been."

Keselowski said Friday he is driving the No. 88 full time in the Nationwide Series next year, and beyond that "is to be determined." He said he simply wants to focus on performance right now.

"I need to win races," Keselowski said. "It’s all about winning. That’s what this sport is about. We’ve been fortunate to do it this year at Nashville, but we’ve got to keep doing it. Running up front in the points helps too, but it’s all about the wins."

Keselowski said he doesn't think about the added pressure of moving to Cup, and he doesn't know if he should be in Cup full time before 2011.

"That’s the thing about racing that really separates it from every other sport," Keselowski said. "There’s no real indication of who deserves to be where or when you’re ready. If you look at baseball, basketball or college football, you put four years in and you win a championship and you move on.

"Racing doesn’t have that system, so you never know when you’re ready. It’s a funny situation. I don’t really know. I know the best thing to do is to win now."

Mentioned Drivers: Brad Keselowski

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2009 Sprint Cup Race for the Chase Standings

Driver Standings after the Ford 400

1 Jimmie Johnson 6652
2 Mark Martin -141
3 Jeff Gordon -179
4 Kurt Busch -206
5 Denny Hamlin -317
6 Tony Stewart -343
7 Greg Biffle -360
8 Juan Pablo Montoya -400
9 Ryan Newman -477
10 Kasey Kahne -524
11 Carl Edwards -534
12 Brian Vickers -723

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