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Why doesn’t Mark Martin have a cup title?
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I have this buddy who hails from San Diego, California. In fact he is from El Cajon the same hometown as Jimmie Johnson. In fact he is probably the biggest Johnson fan that I know of, and Jimmie owes this guy for his rank among merchandise sales because anything with a #48 on it, this guy buys.
By extension he is also a fairly big supporter of Hendrick Motor Sports. Except for one thing, he carries this irrational hatred of Mark Martin. Granted my buddy is a newer NASCAR fan, and was not watching races back when Mark was in his prime. However he is constantly bagging on him for being wildly inconsistent and for his failure to snag a cup title along the way.
When I started watching NASCAR in 1989, I immediately became a Martin fan, ya know for whatever reason any of us decide to support this driver or that, and I always take offense to my buddy’s hatred of Martin.
While Mark has never won a cup title, and while we could argue that Mark was never the best guy in the garage, Mark has had no less than five cup seasons (including so far in 2009) where his performances at the track were good enough to earn him a title. The sad fact here is in each of those seasons a few guys have better years, or historical performances.
Let us start with the 1990 Winston Cup Season. In that season Martin had three wins, won three poles, had 16 top five finishes, and 23 top ten’s. It took a 46 point penalty for an unapproved carburetor spacer to steal away the title. Dale Earnhardt Sr. won the cup that year by 26 points on the strength of 9 wins, 18 top five’s, and 23 top 10’s.
In 1993, Martin again had a Cup winning worthy performance. Martin scored 5 wins, 12 top 5’s, and 19 Top 10’s. He also won five poles. Dale Sr., beat Mark, who finished the season third, by 376 points. That means mark lost two titles to Dale Sr. by 402 total points.
Let us skip to 1995. On the strength of 4 poles, 4 wins, 13 top 5’s, and 22 top 10’s Martin finished a disappointing 4h in the final points standings behind Champ Jeff Gordon, Dale Sr., and Sterling Marlin.
Let us skip to 1998 where Martin had the best year of his entire career. Martin won 7 races, with 22 top 5’s and 26 top 10’s. In any other year this is a championship run, but in 1998 Gordon set the modern era record of 13 wins in one season and Martin was denied the title yet again by 364 points.
As I try to explain to my buddy, these stats prove that Martin success this year is not a flash in the pan, Martin has been a premier driver on the Cup circuit since 1990, he has just never been the number one driver in any one year.
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As an aside, its you're fault you didn't get it right? Not my fault for telling a bad joke? Its the Manny Stiles way after all.
Point is, Mark Martin didn't win because he wasn't good enough. You don't have to be the best, just better then everyone else, y'know.
How does it go? "try thinking for yourselves, blah blah blah" or some shit like that