Can Mark Martin qualify for the playoffs?
It’s possible. When a flat tire on the final lap of the Brickyard 400 cost Martin a possible top-five finish, his chances of qualifying for NASCAR’s new playoff system appeared to sink. But Martin rebounded with a strong third-place finish at Watkins Glen International last Sunday and now sits 13th in the Nextel Cup points, only 72 points out of 10th place. “This team continues to amaze me,” Martin says. “We’ve had so much go wrong, and yet they just keep coming back. I don’t care what the points say, this is a top-five team we have here, and we run that way every week to show it. It’s silly that we are even talking about the top 10, because we should be up a lot higher than that, but we’ll just keep fighting and see what happens. No matter what I love this team and I really appreciate their effort.” Under NASCAR’s Chase for the Nextel Cup, only the top-10 drivers after 26 races, plus any other driver within 400 points of the leader, will qualify to compete for the championship in the
