The secret ingredient for the No. 5 team is attitude

It was early in the season, just after a seemingly great run by Mark Martin at Atlanta Motor Speedway had been ruined when Martin ran over something on the track and punctured a tire, causing him to wreck his No. 5 Chevrolet.

Doubt, it seemed, was bound to creep in on Martin and his crew chief Alan Gustafson.

Pop the cork

Mark Martin posted his Cup Series-best fifth victory of the season in the Chase opener at New Hampshire to extend his points lead.

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This was the team that many had considered a popular dark horse pick to make the Chase, maybe even -- and this seemed a crazy thought that day at AMS -- challenge for Martin's first-ever title. But they were mired in 34th in the points standings after having to settle for a 31st-place finish in the Kobalt Tools 500.

Martin was so upset he barely spoke to anyone before bolting from the track. But Gustafson lingered. And although clearly disappointed, he politely but defiantly laid out his belief that all would be well with Martin's 2009 season, which then was only four races old.

"I think the key to stuff like this is you've got to turn it into motivation," Gustafson said then. "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."

And fight they have. Looking back to that trying day in March, all one can do is shake their head and admire just how far Martin and his Gustafson-led crew have come in the nearly six months since.

On top of the world

This morning Martin sits on top of the Sprint Cup world, same as he did heading into last Sunday's Sylvania 300 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. But his hold on the lead in the points standings seems even steadier now -- not only because he won the Sylvania 300 but because of the continuing dogged mindset his team has displayed heading into the final nine races of the season.

They've won a series-high five races. They won Sunday at a track Martin clearly identified beforehand as a potential trouble spot -- and after what they went through together earlier in the season, they appear to be stronger than ever in their first season of operation.

Maybe Martin should have gotten together with Gustafson a long time ago. Can you imagine how many races, and possibly titles, they might have won by now if they had been partners two decades ago? Then again, two decades ago Gustafson would have been only 14 years old.

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Martin, 50, ran his first Cup race in 1981 when Gustafson was only 5. Perhaps that's what seems so strange about Martin attempting to deflect all the credit for his magical season toward the crew chief.

The fact is, they are a formidable team. The argument could be made that neither has been better in their careers than they are right now -- and yes, we are all well aware that Martin won a career-high seven races while finishing second in the points (the second of four times he has done so) in a Jack Roush car in 1998.

Who's to say Martin can't win two more times this season to match that win total? Or better yet, who's to say he can't win three more to better it?

If he does, there will be no argument then. This will, without a doubt, be the finest season of his long and storied career. And he will indeed owe much to the positive mindset of Gustafson.

Mr. Optimism

One thing about Martin that most notice right away is that he keeps thinking his bubble is about to be burst. Pinch me, he says. I must be dreaming, he laments.

But what he did Sunday in New Hampshire and what he has done since the first Atlanta race this season is no fluke. You've got to believe that deep down, even Martin understands this. If not, there is the ever-optimistic Gustafson to remind him -- again and again, if necessary.

Sometimes a crew chief and driver just click. They meet at the right time in their careers and they make history together. That is what appears to be happening with Martin and Gustafson, who won four races with Kyle Busch in three seasons as Busch's crew chief on the same car for Hendrick Motorsports from 2005-07.

That wasn't bad, but it wasn't Busch's time yet -- nor, by extension, was it Gustafson's time. Busch blossomed after leaving Hendrick and getting paired with crew chief Steve Addington on the Cup side for Joe Gibbs Racing. Busch has consistently won more races than anyone else in NASCAR's three national series in the last two seasons, despite failing to make the Chase this season.

Perhaps Busch failed to make it for the same reason Martin did. When things go wrong, Busch tends to overreact and lash out, looking for someone other than himself to blame -- although he's still young and striving to gain a higher level of maturity.

Martin and Gustafson took the opposite approach after that difficult March day in Atlanta. They had sat on the pole for that race at AMS and ran near the front much of the day, yet they headed into the following week's race at Bristol in danger of dipping below the all-important top 35 in points.

But they refused to panic, knowing that a bad day at Bristol would have put them in the embarrassing situation of having to qualify for the next race after that on speed.

"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," Gustafson said that day. "But I feel like the team is performing at a really high level. I think it's easily at a top-five level. ... So I don't think we need to change anything. I think it's just some circumstances we've gotten into."

They sat on the pole that next weekend at Bristol, finished sixth in the subsequent race there, and began a steady ascent in the points standings that allowed them to get to where they are today. It won't be easy and it's far from a certainty, but that same approach may just allow them to be there when this season's points are tallied for the final time nine weeks from now.

The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer.