Mark Martin Racing Time, Chasing History

Mark Martin leaned into the microphone at Richmond International Raceway two weeks ago and, as if daring you to think otherwise, proclaimed his season already "icing on the cake," and any future success "overwhelming."

A day later the 50-year-old clinched a spot in NASCAR's Chase for the Championship.

He scored a Sprint Cup Series best fifth victory in New Hampshire on Sunday, extending his championship lead to 35 points over three-time reigning champ Jimmie Johnson with nine races remaining in stock car's version of the playoffs.

Overwhelmed it is.

Martin has returned from a part-time sabbatical -- he insists he never "retired" -- to equal his entire win total from 1999-2008. Only Johnson has led more races or more laps than Martin this season. And just last week, Martin signed a contract extension keeping him behind the wheel of the Hendrick Motorsports' No. 5 Chevy through his 52rd birthday.

Yet, if reverse psychology were a field of study, Martin would hold a doctorate. He is the professor of carpe diem, a case study in conservative expectations yielding high reward.

No one wants to win more. No one expects it less.

"He knows now there is a really good chance he can be a champion and he's doing everything he can not to think about it," teammate Johnson said with a laugh on Tuesday.

Too late.

The glass is half full.

"At the start of the season, he was putting realistic expectations on his goals and we all know Mark undersells that, anyone that knows Mark, knows that," Johnson said.

"At the end of the day, he's convinced himself his happiness cannot be affected by whether he wins a championship or not. But I do see his attitude change as the races are going on."

It is easier to understand why Martin brings this mindset to the table than to pinpoint what exactly it is that has propelled him to a career year at an age when most professional athletes have moved to the announcing booth or living room sofa.

Martin is all about guarded confidence -- it's a game of emotional tug-of-war he's played throughout his career, darting between hope and disappointment.

The confidence comes from 40 Cup Series wins spanning three decades, against two seven-time champions in two different championship formats.

The confidence comes from a record five International Race of Champions (IROC) championships. The now-defunct series featured the best of the best in identical cars and Martin beat the sport's greatest, such as Al Unser Jr., the late Dale Earnhardt, Steve Kinser and Tony Stewart, for those titles.

The confidence comes from a record 48 Nationwide Series wins and from a 2006 stint in the Camping World Truck Series, where he won six times in 14 starts.

The caution comes courtesy of four second-place finishes in the Cup championship and the 0-for-25 in NASCAR's Super Bowl, the Daytona 500, that have simultaneously haunted Martin and turned him into one of the most overwhelming sentimental title favorites in recent memory.

A no-nonsense, no-one-to-blame-but-me racer's racer, Martin has always enjoyed a large following and the unwavering respect of his competition.

When Kevin Harvick won the 2007 Daytona 500, nosing ahead of Martin at the checkered flag by .02 seconds, he was almost apologetic in the victor's news conference.

Ask any of the current 12 Chase drivers who they'd pick to win the title if it weren't them.

"As a Mark Martin fan since I was a little kid, if he won it, I'd be happy for him," Johnson allowed, "but I try not to go into that place."

Martin is genuinely humbled when he hears the kind words from competitors. He's just afraid to buy into his own season's success yet. He doesn't want to get too greedy.

Heartache and tough life lessons have made him that way.

The four championship runner-up finishes -- including a 26-point loss to Earnhardt in 1990 that included a controversial penalty to Martin's team, along with a 38-point loss to Stewart in 2002 -- were difficult, but nothing compared to the loss of his father Julian Martin, who was killed in a plane crash during the 1998 season.

It was Julian Martin, the doting dad who modified his only son's first race cars so that the steering wheel and drivers seat were more safely positioned in the middle of car. It was Julian that cajoled, urged and encouraged Martin as he established himself around the Midwest, eventually winning three American Speed Association (ASA) titles.

They are the experiences that have formed Mark Martin's famous, "let's-not-get-ahead-of-ourselves" mindset, his feeling that opportunity and disappointment are behind every door.

It has also had the unexpected consequence of helping Martin appreciate and enjoy this season's success like no other - even if he still insists on deferring the credit.

Here's a guy who races door-to-door to the finish line with Kyle Busch -- an extremely aggressive driver, half Martin's age -- and after holding him off for victory, Martin's first words in victory circle were to thank Busch for the clean and spirited battle.

When Martin held off Indy 500 champ Juan Pablo Montoya and Denny Hamlin on three consecutive, race-deciding re-starts Sunday, Martin climbed out of his car and gave all the credit to his crew chief Alan Gustafson.

It's always his crew chief, or the engine shop, or his pit crew or his team owner.

Hey, Mark: it's you, too.

"I think he's the most dangerous guy,'' Montoya said. "He's the guy with the most experience. He hasn't won a championship and he wants one pretty bad.

"I know the 48 (Johnson) is going to be there every week, same as always, but if somebody wants it really bad, it's that 5 guy."

Whether he admits it.

"I didn't take this job to win the championship,'' Martin said. "I took this job to drive a fast race car and hopefully win a race. "I don't think you can will your way to scoring points. I tried that for 19 years. I tried to will my way, and it never worked. And it was frustrating.

"So what we will do, and what I will do, is do my very best, I'm a really intense person, I'm really competitive and I will give every ounce that I have at it just like I do every time.

"And we'll see how it turns out."