Martin’s Misery

The best season of Mark Martin’s career has been filled with misery.

His father was killed in a plane crash, his bad back has been so painful that he even thought about suicide, and his bid for the Winston Cup championship came up short once again.

After twice losing out to Dale Earnhardt during The Intimidator’s heyday, Martin’s best performance wasn’t good enough to beat Jeff Gordon.

But after wondering if his days as a winning driver were over when he went without a victory in 1996, and after seeing almost his entire team change before this season, Martin isn’t feeling sorry for himself.

“It has been the greatest year of my life,” he said. “I just hope that I’m as blessed next year as I have been this year.

“I have a lot of reason to believe that we can do it, that this race team can continue to make progress. But it’s been a dream come true to me.”

At the same time, though, it has been a year in which Gordon’s dominance has left Martin wondering if he’ll ever be a champion.

“Everybody has to face their limitations,” Martin said. “I have to look at my limitations in the face every day, and I don’t know for sure how capable I am of doing more than what I did this year.”

He won seven races after not winning more than five in the past. He took three poles, and finished in the top five 21 times and in the top 10 25 times.

“When Dale Earnhardt was the man, I ran second to him in the points,” Martin said. “And now that Jeff Gordon is the man, I’m running second in the points.

“When it’s all over, you might not ever be able to say that Mark Martin was the man.”

Nonetheless, he has the admiration of his peers.

“Mark Martin is one of my heroes,” Gordon said. “I think he’s one of the greatest. I want to congratulate him on a great year, say thanks for what a great season he’s made this for me.”

Added driver Ken Schrader: “I’m happy for Jeff Gordon, but I’m sad for Mark Martin to have the type of year he had and have it on the same year someone has a little better one.”

This season was not the first time that’s happened.

In 1990, Martin led Earnhardt by 44 points with two races left, then finished 10th and sixth while Earnhardt won in Phoenix and ran third in the Atlanta finale to take the championship by 26 points.

In 1994, when Earnhardt won his series record-tying seventh championship, Martin rallied to finish second again.

If not for some bad luck in restrictor-plate races at Daytona International Speedway and Talladega Superspeedway, this might have been Martin’s year. Gordon’s 344-point advantage includes a 321-point edge on those tracks.

Martin finished 38th and 16th at Daytona; 23rd and 34th at Talladega. Gordon was 16th and first at Daytona; fifth and second at Talladega.

“We broke some parts, got in some wrecks that were none of our doing and took some big hits,” Martin said. “Fortieth place at Darlington hurt. We ran two-thirds of the race third and then fell out and got third-from-last.

While there were few mechanical failures, Gordon’s dominance left room for none.

But Martin also knows there have been times when luck was on his side. In Las Vegas, the transmission hung on just long enough.

“The transmission was locked up. I had to drive it in fourth gear to Victory Lane,” Martin said. “It was fixing to quit on us.

“Our pit stops weren’t up to speed and there were a number of things that should have cost us the race, but we won it. And then we built a stronger and better team.”

Surgery scheduled for Nov. 16 should ease the pain of a lower back injury Martin said brought “honest suicidal thoughts” at times this season, and a year together should improve his team for 1999.

Martin also spent part of the season trying to overcome the death of his father and two other relatives in a plane crash near Las Vegas in August.

Now, after going into 1997 wondering why he hadn’t won the year before, and then going into this season wondering if his four victories in 1997 were a fluke, Martin looks forward to getting back on the track in February.

“I think my best years are still in front of me,” he said.