Drivers taking notice of Martin's part-time success (cont'd)

It's happened in the Busch series, where some moonlighting Cup drivers -- like Kyle Busch and Greg Biffle last season -- have remained in title contention without making the maximum number of starts. Martin's example might make it easier for a contending driver to skip a start due to injury, rather than force himself to complete the first few laps to qualify for points for that race. But the margin for error remains very narrow.

"It's a hard thing to do," Burton said. "[Martin] has had great racecars and run really well and hasn't had any catastrophic problems. When you do that, you teeter on the edge. One bad race puts you in a place where you're not in the Chase for sure."

And there are other factors to consider, like the sponsors that pay not only to have their logos plastered all over racecars, but also to have those vehicles driven by the top names in the sport. Gordon points out that Martin is in a unique situation, one where primary sponsor U.S. Army was willing to split the seat, and where Ginn Racing wanted Martin's name recognition badly enough to allow him to race part time.

"I think when you get to the point in your career where Mark has, then yes, you consider it. I think when you're in the prime of your career and you've made a commitment to your team and sponsors, I think that's when it gets really tricky and tough to juggle," Gordon said.

"Your sponsors, in order to get them to commit the dollars it takes to be competitive these days, it's very difficult to convince them that you're not going to have your lead driver every single weekend. I credit Ginn racing and the U.S. Army for working that out. I think it's amazing what they've done. Only a team like that can do that. They didn't have a Mark Martin before that, and they needed a Mark Martin to get them to the next level, and they were willing to bend the norm to do that."

The more Martin succeeds, the more other teams may be willing to do the same thing.

"This sport is trendy," Burton said. "This sport is always monkey see, monkey do. By Mark doing it and doing it well, it will open sponsors' minds to it, it will open drivers' minds to it, it will open car owners' minds to it the same way Jeff Gordon opened car owners' minds to hiring a guy without a lot of this kind of experience. Now the trendy thing to do is hire a guy with no experience. That's just how the sport works."