Martin misses out on Chase

After being the leader as the Sprint Cup title chase began last year, Mark Martin is not among the top 12 this year.

[richdsg]

Mark, it's time to retire.

[Harrison Freebird]

You had a way good run. Think its time to go fishin' ole buddy.

[curious]

how can martin go from winning four races and running up front and leading every race to, not even being able to finish in the top twenty or even finish a race on the lead lap. something smells at hendrick motor sports or nascar.

[curious]

yes

[Wang]

This so sad. The Juniol Effect stlick again.

[alpinedigital]

And to think this year will have been for nothing if Jr doesn't pick it up a little bit. Having Martin fall more than 11 HUGE positions minimum in the standings... Jr would need to finish the season right there with Martin, like 15th in points? Then it will at least look like an even trade, right?

Sad about Martin but maybe if he retires, he can get picked up to help train Jr to finish better. Of course that would be quite a commitment to stick by the HMS plan to get that team up to standard.

[The Fat and the Furious]

Lets not get carried away here, Mark is far from running in the back of the pack. You people make it sound like he's 35 in points or something.

We've seen this happen many times, with many drivers. They have a really good year and run a little off the next. That's part of racing in Nascar. Other teams get better and some get worse. Mark could just as easily come out next year and run fantastic or just as easily have another sub-par year. I guess Kyle Busch, Tony Stewart and Jeff Gordon should retire too. They each had a year where they didn't make it in the chase along with many others. Hell, Kevin Harvick (our regular season points leader) should have retired last year by that way of thinking. Just as easily as Kevin's team found something, Mark's lost something.

Anyway, on to the next 10 and than we'll see how next year plays out. Some guys will get better and some worse, while some will stay about the same. That's Nascar and always has been. If running up front and winning consistently was easy, there would guys with more than 7 championships in Nascar.

As far as Mark moving on as a Hendrick advisor, I don't see that happening. I think we'll see Mark getting involved in the ownerships side of things at some point, maybe with some Hendrick backing or maybe not. I don't see him just going away and ownership is probably the next step for him. If that is indeed his path, as well respected as he is, I'm sure some decent opportunities will come along for him.

[codmuffin]

i like mark and have respect for him ut i have to say its time to retire buddy

[alpinedigital]

The Fat and the Furious wrote:

If running up front and winning consistently was easy, there would guys with more than 7 championships in Nascar.

This is the only thing about the post that triggers my inaccuracy alert. I would guess that if it was easy, more people would do it, it would be that much harder to win a championship. That said, it seems to me: If running up front and winning consistently was easy, there'd be more champs, and thus, each would have fewer championships, and the record would be 4 titles, taking about 3 decades to accumulate.