Martin wonders what might have been

Veteran says Lowe's car was good enough to win Saturday

CONCORD, N.C. -- After winning last week's Banquet 400 at Kansas Speedway, Mark Martin thought he was out of the Chase for the Nextel Cup.

After finishing fifth in the strangest race that has likely ever been run at Lowe's Motor Speedway, he's a lot closer and a lot more ticked off.

	Credit: Autostock
	Inside the Numbers Mark Martin in the Chase Race Start Finish Standing Loudon 15 7 7 Dover 7 4 4 Talladega 24 41 9 Kansas 19 1 7 Charlotte 6 5 5

It was his fourth top-10 finish in five Chase races to date, and his margin to co-point leaders Tony Stewart and Jimmie Johnson shrank from 113 to 51. He even picked up two spots in the points to fifth.

So why was he ticked off?

"I really hate it," Martin said. "This car was capable of contending for the win, but we just struggled all night long. Every time we turned around, we had problems on pit road and we almost crashed on pit road.

"Every time we turned around, we'd just about get there in position where we could go race for it and then we'd have a major setback -- not a major setback, but we'd go back to 10th or 12th."

Martin has always been a sort of glass-half-empty guy, but his reaction was more emotional than normal for him.

"These guys (his team) have given me a golden opportunity here (to win the title)," Martin said. "I hate that we didn't do more with it, but it's good to get a top-five. That's what you need to do and maybe we can win some more of them."

On a night where the majority of the Chasers had problems of one form or another, Martin had a chance to make some serious strides toward the title that has eluded him for 18 years.

"Well, it's a step at a time," Martin said. "You don't go from 113 back to having a shot at it. We got a little closer. I wish we could have done more. I swear, we had a car that could contend for that win, but it was good enough to come back from 10th and 12th several times. It was tough passing out there, so it was a good run for us."

In the overall scheme of things, Martin came out of Charlotte much better off than most of the Chase contenders, but he still fumed about it.

"We did what we needed to do," he said. "We made it to the end, but we finally figured out you couldn't go more than 20 laps without a caution anyway."

With five races left until the championship is decided, Martin is doing what he needs to do to have a chance at glory one more time.

During the race, he lamented that if he could throw out Talladega (where he finished 41st), he'd be leading the points by 120 by now. He's finished seventh, fourth and first in the other three Chase races.

"It was a great car and a great effort," he said. "I'm really proud of this race team.

"They're giving me a shot at it."