Gustafson not concerned about No. 5 car's situation

When the 2009 season began, Mark Martin was considered a popular dark horse pick to make the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship.

Four races into the grind that is a 36-race marathon, it no longer is such a popular notion. Martin sits 34th in the standings heading into Sunday's Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway -- and he's 35th in owners' points, perilously close to the top 35 cutoff where he would have to start qualifying for events on speed beginning next week at Martinsville Speedway.

Return to Bristol

Quite a bit has changed about Bristol since Mark Martin last raced there in Cup. But, as he says, it's still a race track.

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It has been a mystifying start to the season for Martin's crew chief, Alan Gustafson.

After engine failures -- rare for any Hendrick Motorsports team -- at Fontana and Las Vegas in two of the first three races, Martin was running fourth in the Kobalt Tools 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway when he ran over something on the track, puncturing a tire and causing him to wreck. After that, it was all Gustafson and the veteran driver could do to bring Martin's No. 5 Chevrolet home in 31st place.

"It's almost humorous now," Gustafson said. "We're proud of Mark and all of the guys. We had a good car [in Atlanta]. We weren't the greatest on the short runs, but I think we were as good as anybody on the long runs. We just ran something over and cut a right-rear tire. It's just unfortunate.

"The guys deserve a lot better. Mark deserves a lot better. Unfortunately we don't control all that happens. We just have to go to Bristol now and be ready to go, and keep doing what we've been doing. I think we've been running as well as anybody, with maybe just a few exceptions. The 24 [driven by Hendrick Motorsports teammate and current points leader Jeff Gordon] may have been better than us at a few races, but I think we've run as well as anybody the first four races; we just have nothing to show for it. Hopefully that'll change."

Martin was wicked fast at Atlanta, and he showed it by winning the pole for the race. Three-time defending Sprint Cup champion Jimmie Johnson said he believes it is only a matter of time until Martin's luck turns for the better.

"He's had plenty of speed," Johnson said. "It's been two motors and a tire. I look at it as bad luck. He's been way quick. Actually, I've been really impressed with everything he's done."

The results just don't match the speed. Gustafson said the key for now is for the entire team to remain positive.

"It's not something you want to go through," he said. "You're not happy about it. But at the same time, I'm really proud of how fast we are, how good Mark is, and the character of this team -- how they fight week in and week out. I'm not going to let it get me down. We're not going to let it get us down as a team.

"It can turn just the same the other way. We can go win three in a row just like we've had problems three in a row, and then we won't be in too bad of shape. We can't change what we do. We just need to stay focused and stay positive and do our job, and the rest will take care of itself."

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The crew chief added that he does not plan to have his driver go with a conservative game plan this weekend. He said they can't afford that.

"You can't be timid at Bristol. That's a place where you've got to be smart, but you've got to attack," Gustafson said. "We're going to go there to win a race and run good. We're not going to change our philosophy. If it comes down to the fact that we're going to gamble at the end of the race, like if Mark is going to race door-to-door with someone to win it or finish second, I'd say we'll take our good run and go home.

"But as far as preparation and getting ready for that race, we'll just do everything like we do for every race. We'll go there to try to win the race. It's a good race track for us as a team. We've had a lot of good success there, and it's a good race track for Mark as a driver. And I love going there. I would hate to go there worried. I know that would be a bad thing to do, so we're going to go there and be ready to go."

Two of Martin's 35 career victories have come at Bristol, but both were a long time ago -- 1993 and 1998, respectively. He has an average career finish of 12.8 at the track.

Gustafson said the week off between Atlanta and Bristol should prove helpful to get the No. 5 team in the right frame of mind for the rest of the season. Then again, Gustafson said he didn't approach the week off any differently than he would have if they entered it No. 1 in points.

"If there was something that I felt like our guys were responsible for, or Mark was responsible for -- something that we were doing to put ourselves in these situations, then we would go to work harder and we'd change some things," he said. "But I feel like the team is performing at a really high level. I think it's easily at a top-five level. We've run well at all the races. Our worst race was California, where we were running ninth [when the engine blew].

"So I don't think we need to change anything. I think it's just some circumstances we've gotten into. We've blown some engines, and Hendrick motors, Hendrick engines, are the best in the business. I know they'll fix it like they have in the past.

"The guys have done a good job on race days. Running over a piece on the track, there's nothing you can do about that. Mark has been phenomenal, to run the way he's run and to handle things the way he's handled it. We're just going to keep our chins up and go on to Bristol."

So the plan is to fight with a sense of desperation akin to a caged wild animal, Gustafson added.

"I think the key to stuff like this is you've got to turn it into motivation," he said. "You can't sit there and feel sorry for yourself, or hang your head and pout. You can't start talking about ifs, ands or buts. You've got to fight. You've got to say, 'Hey, we've got our backs against the wall.'

"There is nothing more dangerous than a rabid dog, you know, so that's what we've got to be. We're in the back where we don't belong, and we've just got to take it and use it as motivation and go out there and fight."

Joe Menzer is the author of "The Great American Gamble: How the 1979 Daytona 500 Gave Birth to a NASCAR Nation." Click here to purchase.