Mark Martin Slips to 35th After Crash

After taking the outside pole in the season-opening Daytona 500, the rejuvenated and ageless Mark Martin was the talk of the NASCAR garage area.

Martin, it seemed, was ready to vie for his first Sprint Cup title during his first full season with Hendrick Motorsports after taking a part-time role for the past few seasons.

Now, after a third-straight finish lower than 30th, it's hard to believe that the driver of the No. 5 is the same guy the NASCAR world was abuzz about just four weeks ago.

From that front row starting spot at Daytona, Martin came home with a 16th-place finish after the rain-shortened festivities of the season-opener left former Roush Fenway Racing teammate Matt Kenseth the winner and the rest of the finishing order more jumbled than rookie Joey Logano's post-Daytona confidence.

The next week at Auto Club Speedway, Martin and teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr. both suffered engine failures that left the No. 5 team with a 40th-place finish after completing 179 of the 250 scheduled laps. The same fate and finish then awaited Martin the next weekend at Las Vegas Motor Speedway -- dropping the Arkansas driver to an ugly 34th in points.

Friday, when Martin won the pole for Sunday's 500-mile proceedings at Atlanta Motor Speedway, the cloud over the No. 5 Chevrolet seemingly had departed.

As it turned out, the clearing was brief.

On lap 214, Martin's right rear tire went flat while he entered turn one at the 1.5-mile track, sending the No. 5 into a slow spin towards the outside wall. The damage, while not crippling, brought Martin to pit road for a lenghy repair.

When the checkered flag finally flew to declare Kurt Busch winner of the Kobalt Tools 500, Martin was left 14 laps off the leader's pace and with a disappointing 31st-place finish.

Fortunately, Sunday wasn't as bad as it could have been for Martin.

Coming into the race, Martin was 34th in the owner point standings and on the edge of the NASCAR's well-known "Top-35 Rule" that grants an automatic starting spot to each team for the next race granted they are 35th or better. In three weeks, the results of the first five races of 2009 will go into effect for that rule. (NASCAR grants teams who finished the previous season inside the Top-35 a five-race window to start each season.)

As of now, Martin sits teetering on the edge of having to qualify based on speed for the season's sixth race at Martinsville Speedway thanks to his 35th-place standing -- just a mere 9 points ahead of Earnhardt-Ganassi Racing's Aric Almirola.

What lies between now and that cut-off point for the first Top-35 classification of 2009? Only one of NASCAR's most rough and tumble tracks -- the infamous high-banked short track that is Bristol Motor Speedway -- that can truly be a wildcard thanks to small confines creating plenty of situations for trouble.

Martin has picked up two wins at the track and averages a finish of 13th in his 40 tries, but hasn't been in a race there since 2006.

Nine points is virtually a non-existant cushion especially at Bristol meaning Martin will have to hope that the coming off-week for the Sprint Cup Series will rid his team of all the bad demons it has seen since Daytona.

However, its not at all realistic to expect that Martin can't regain to form to find the Chase come September -- mainly knowing that the problems he's seen so far haven't been induced by at-track team actions.

The No. 5 ship will right itself, but in the mean time, the string of bad luck for a team with such a depth of resources is nothing less than surprising.