INDIANAPOLIS -- Team owner Rick Hendrick won't force Mark Martin out of his seat next year to make room for Kasey Kahne at Hendrick Motorsports.

Kahne has signed to take control of the No. 5 Chevrolet in 2012, and Martin is slated to drive the car through the end of next season. He's remained adamant that he won't get out of the car a year early, and Hendrick said before Sunday's race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway that he's planning on Martin driving the No. 5 next season.

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Mark has made a heck of contribution to our organization's path and still is. I wish Mark could drive four, five more years.

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-- RICK HENDRICK

"We have a deal with Mark, and we're going to honor that," Hendrick said. "We want to honor that. Kasey's known that. That's kind of where we are. It's [Martin's] seat and it's his call."

But Hendrick must find a place to stash Kahne next season, and by not announcing a plan yet, the speculation has persisted that Martin won't be back at Hendrick Motorsports next season.

The intensity picked up this weekend when Ray Evernham, the former championship-winning crew chief for Hendrick and current ESPN analyst, suggested Martin will ultimately step aside for Kahne. Some in the garage suggested that Evernham was doing Hendrick's "dirty work" by publicly suggesting Martin should bow out.

"I don't need anybody to do dirty work for me," Hendrick said. "If I have anything I want done, I'll go to the people. I won't have somebody else doing it or speaking for me. Mark has made a heck of contribution to our organization's path and still is. I wish Mark could drive four, five more years."

Hendrick does admit he feels bad for Kahne and Martin by leaving the unanswered questions out there. And if he could answer them -- he would.

"It's my fault -- I take 100 percent -- but I've never signed a driver this early under a four-car cap rule and we do have a lot of options, but those options you have to make everything fit with the sponsors and everything else," Hendrick said. "We might have a potential player that has a conflict and I've got it in contracts that the guy that's going to drive for me in a year can't be associated or he comes and he's got to bring that guy with him in some cases.

"It's just a very complicated deal. Is it more complicated than I anticipated? Yeah, but at the same time, I do have options, and I want to make it the best option for everyone involved."

RCR with strong showing

Richard Childress' drivers did everything but win.

All three of the owner's drivers finished in the top six Sunday at the Brickyard 400. Points leader Kevin Harvick finished second, Clint Bowyer was fourth and Jeff Burton sixth.

Harvick stretched his advantage on Jeff Gordon to 184 points. He was fine with padding his lead.

"I felt like we had a top-five car, but we didn't have a winning car," Harvick said. "We had a chance to win at the end and came up just a little short."

Bowyer solidified his 12th-place standing in the Chase.

"It was awesome, a lot of fun, and what was needed," he said. "It was a good run, and a good points race for us. It wasn't what we wanted, but it was what we needed."

Burton wasn't as happy.

"Didn't have the grip I thought we would," Burton said. "Just not as good as we thought, but we did OK. Not great, but OK. We had a solid day, we need to do better. But if that is going to be a bad day, that's good."

Logano makes a charge

Joey Logano was forced to move to the back of the field at the start because of an engine change, but he recovered to finish ninth.

He was also affected by the crash in the first lap.

"That first wreck, I didn't get in it, but I ran over a brake rotor," Logano said. "It popped up and hit the front end. Had a bunch of scratches on the grill."

Logano ran between 10th and 20th for most of the race. He said he was fine with where he finished.

"Finally got the car the best it was at the end," he said. "Maybe one more little adjustment might have helped. We about finished where we ran."

Attendance woes

Empty seats were plentiful again at the Brickyard.

NASCAR crowd estimates had dropped from 270,000 in 2007 to 240,000 in 2008 and 180,000 last year. This year, the estimate fell to 140,000.

Indianapolis Motor Speedway spokesman Eric Powell said the economy played a role, but there was more to it.

"This is a business, and our business is to provide great entertainment for our fans and to sell tickets," Powell said. "While I wouldn't say we're concerned, I'd say we have a lot of work to do to continue to raise the profile of this event, and find not only creative ways to not only make this a great race, but to make this an affordable race for our fans."