Martin still upbeat despite fading title hopes

AVONDALE, Ariz. -- Mark Martin is far from being demoralized this weekend at Phoenix International Raceway.

The evergreen Batesville, Ark., driver of Roush Racing's No. 6 Viagra Ford could easily crawl into a shell after a 25-point penalty administered by NASCAR last week put him 112 points behind Winston Cup leader Tony Stewart with two races to go.

But that's not Martin's style.

	Mark Martin will start seventh Sunday at Phoenix. Credit: Autostock

"It's easy to forget that a year ago we were racing for 12th in the points and right now we're racing for first or second," Martin said. "I've been racing for 28 years or something like that -- the last time I counted it was somewhere around 28.

"Over that period of time I've developed some tools or skills for survival. In order to be successful at anything as competitive as this is, you have to be really, really thick-skinned and you have to be tough or you won't ever survive -- you will never make it to this level.

"With that said, it doesn't mean that I don't bleed because I do, but I do the best I can with it."

Martin has been affected this season by just about every circumstance available in racing -- but after finishing in the top-eight in the championship for 12 straight years, he was 12th last year -- so is relishing his rekindled competitiveness.

He has 20 top-10s in 34 races and has only dropped out of three races -- twice through accidents and once via engine failure.

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Only three races ago, the point race was one of the closest in NASCAR history. Circumstances have trimmed the realistic title contenders to Stewart and Martin. Both Martin and third-place Jimmie Johnson have received 25-point penalties in the second half of the season for technical infractions.

Martin refuses to dwell much on that coming into Sunday's Checker Auto Parts 500. He has a win, four second-place finishes and nine top-10s in his past 10 Phoenix starts, but Stewart has a win and another top-five in only three career starts.

"Racing is determined sometimes by coincidence and, secondly, it's by design -- NASCAR's design," Martin said. "This is what they want. For any given team to win -- I think Gordon won 13 in '98 and I won seven and we finished first and second in the points -- I don't know that that will happen again in NASCAR.

"If it does, it would surprise me. That's not healthy for the business side of this sport and NASCAR watches that very closely. I hope that kind of explains it to you.

	The No. 6 Viagra Ford was found to be inviolation of NASCAR rules last week. Credit: Autostock

"NASCAR has the rules designed at the present time to prevent anyone from being able to excel to the point of domination."

Martin began his career on scruffy dirt tracks in Arkansas as a diminutive teenager and his racer's side doesn't like that -- but he's also a realist.

"If I said I disagreed with it," Martin said, "they would say, 'you live in a nice house, don't you? You've got a nice airplane, don't you?' The racer in me does not like that, no (and) obviously, I'm a racer first and foremost.

"But it has been extremely good for the sport because it's brought so many fans and so much visibility to the sport. It wouldn't be as popular and you wouldn't be as interested in covering this if someone would have won a dozen races and was running away with it.

"I'd say I have to be non-committal on the thing, but I will say what I said -- the racer in me really hates that, but we're not racing the dirt tracks in Arkansas like I was in 1975, either."