Prior to the start of last weekend’s Dickie’s 500 at Texas Motor Speedway, many in the motorsports media had all but conceded the 2009 Sprint Cup championship to Jimmie Johnson. In fact, they had all but done so following his win at Dover in the second race of the 10-race playoff format. Mark Martin, on the other hand, was less than willing to kowtow to the general consensus of the press, tersely responding to one such leading question with, “You just don’t have any idea how much racing eight races is, I guess.”

While remaining defiant in the face of such doom and gloom, Martin has remained positive, focusing on each race rather than obsessing over every point earned or lost. It was that neurosis that nearly led to him walking away for good a few years ago, and the cause of so much despair and near-explosions of his temporal vein.

While Johnson spent the majority of the race last weekend in the garage, the combined power of Hendrick Motorsports trying to get his Lowe’s Impala drivable again, Martin cruised to a fourth-place finish, once again thrusting him back into title contention and setting the stage for a comeback as improbable as the one staged by his late friend and competitor, 1992 Cup champion Alan Kulwicki.

The final few races have been a cause for concern for Martin in past championship battles. And while serving to inch him within a fingertip’s reach of glory, or once again walking the tightrope over the abyss, the final two events of this season will either provide the surge needed to secure his first championship or cause to purge himself of the self-induced pressure of title pursuits past.

As a second-year driver behind the wheel of Jack Roush’s No. 6 Fords, 1989 was the year Martin truly came of age as a then-Winston Cup driver. A season of relentless testing – 16 times in the days of unlimited open sessions – helped the team get a leg up on the competition with Goodyear’s radical new radial tire. It helped the burgeoning racing dynasty capture six poles and five second-place finishes before finally breaking through at Rockingham, where Martin captured his first career win. The consistency that would become the hallmark of his career thrust him into championship contention with two races remaining after posting a third-place finish at Phoenix. Just as he does now, 20 years later, Martin trailed the points-leader, Rusty Wallace, by 73 points.

Martin qualified 20th in the final race in Atlanta, far behind fellow contenders Wallace and Dale Earnhardt. Martin’s Stroh’s Light Ford disemboweled itself on lap 224, blowing the bottom end out of the engine, the result resembling a beer can erupting like an Iraqi oil fire. Martin finished third to the duo, as Wallace squeaked out an agonizingly close 12-point triumph over Earnhardt.

Hindsight being what it is, it’s probably for the best that Martin’s day ended as it did. Had he led the most laps and won, he would have still fallen short of Wallace and the championship by three points.

The next season is still the year that many bitter Martin fans remember, and 1990 will sour their mood in a heartbeat. Texans may cry, “Remember the Alamo!” but for those whose vehicles are adorned with faded No. 6 stickers or worn out burgundy Folgers t-shirts, “Remember Richmond!” is their call to arms.

After receiving a 46-point penalty that was the result of a dispute over a race weekend technical bulletin — and according to Jack Roush, some wranglings between Chevrolet car owner Richard Childress and Bill France Jr. — Martin was allowed to keep the win he earned that race, but was levied the most punitive points-penalty in NASCAR’s modern era; one that would not be eclipsed for over a decade.

Regardless of the nature of the penalty, Martin and his team put it behind them, holding the points lead from Sonoma in June, through Rockingham in October. Entering Phoenix, all eyes were on his No. 6 and the No. 3 of Earnhardt, as "The Duel in The Desert" was promoted with an oddly-scripted television intro that had the two dressed as gunslingers and pulling pistols on one another.

A late-race call for four tires mired Martin in traffic that afternoon, and he was unable to negotiate his way to the front, though his car was never much of a threat to win the race anyway. As it was, the tire gamble did not pay off, and he left Phoenix with a six-point deficit to The Intimidator. The next two weeks were spent camping in Atlanta, as Martin and all of the Ford teams put together the stock car version of The Manhattan Project, pooling resources to field the best car, the best engine and the best chance for Martin, Roush and Ford to topple the juggernaut of Earnhardt, Childress and General Motors.

What resulted was FrankenFord: a mish-mash of a racecar that had air in the brake lines, obtuse handling and smoking tires through the corners. Earnhardt finished third that day and Martin sixth, and a string of questions that would plague him for the next 19 years were born.

A tumultuous year for Martin, 1992 saw a new sponsor coupled with the dominant car make of the season, as the Ford Thunderbird teams conspired to win nine of the first 10 races. And although he posted a win in the eighth race of the season at Martinsville, it was rumored that Martin’s job was on the line by Charlotte in late May.

A late-autumn charge got Martin back into title contention, though, while a late-race wall-job at Rockingham dropped him out of the running once again in the final three races. A strong second-place showing at Phoenix was the prelude to the greatest championship fight ever at the season finale in Atlanta, where no less than six drivers entered with a legitimate shot at the championship.

Martin had the dominant car early in that race, but after leading 47 laps a burned piston ended his chances just past the halfway point. Of course, the rest of that race is well-documented in NASCAR lore. Underfinanced independent car owner Alan Kulwicki used strategy to lead one more lap than Bill Elliott and his powerhouse Junior Johnson-owned outfit to win the title by a scant 10 points — despite the fact that Elliott won the event.

While many cite 1990 as Martin’s trademark year of heartbreak, it was actually in 1997 that he came closest to winning what was then the Winston Cup.

With two races to go, Martin trailed points-leader and current teammate Jeff Gordon by 125 points, prompting most to render the final two weeks a formality. What followed illustrated how quickly fortunes can turn NASCAR — often for the worse.

Exiting pit road during practice at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Gordon made hard contact with Bobby Hamilton’s No. 43 STP Pontiac. The damage was severe enough that the team was forced to spend the rest of its practice time piecing its primary car back together rather than sorting the car out for Sunday.

At many points during the event, Gordon lost the points lead, as Martin led laps and ran consistently near the front. Following final pit stops, Martin was back in the lead and pulling away, heading toward his first title, while Gordon was mired deep in the field a lap down.

Predictably, though, the mercurial Martin luck reared its ugly head, as yet another burned piston consumed his chance at a championship. He faded to a third-place finish on seven cylinders, as Gordon made up positions on the track, to win the title by 14 points over Dale Jarrett and 29 over Martin.

Following a lack-luster 2001 season when Martin set his five-year retirement plan into motion, a new crew chief and a new paint scheme in ’02 proved to be the rejuvenation needed to get the now-grizzled back into championship form.

Controversy again surrounded his team entering Phoenix. The week prior, after a second-place run at Rockingham, the team was docked 25 points for a left-front spring that was found to be slightly short. The team cried foul, citing a manufacturing defect, while Martin stated he felt they were “given the death penalty for shop lifting.”

Back-to-back fourth-place finishes at Rockingham and in the season finale at Homestead were not enough to unseat Tony Stewart, as Smoke captured his first of two championships. On the cool down lap, Martin asked for the verdict, and when told of where Stewart finished, blurted out, “Uh oh …” thinking a capricious fine had once again denied him a title. When assured that the fine would not have made the difference, he sighed some relief.

As it was, losing a title by 34 points instead of 13 was cold comfort to Martin, but probably a little easier to take than getting jobbed out of a championship by a saggy spring.

The first year of the Chase format in 2004 remains the standard to which all others are compared. With two races to go, six drivers were in contention for the title, with Martin 102 points behind teammate Kurt Busch. The first ever Darlington night race — one of the greatest Chase events ever — featured a back and forth battle royale between Martin, Busch, Gordon, Jimmie Johnson and Jamie McMurray. The slugfest culminated in an 18-lap shootout that witnessed Martin charging through the field after a slow pit stop.

Martin caught Johnson by the finish, but it was too late to challenge for the win. The No. 48 came out the victor, while Martin finished second. The 82-points he trailed Busch going into Homestead were too many to overcome, as a lack-luster 11th couldn’t compete with Busch’s fifth-place showing and subsequent title win.

Which brings us to 2009. Heading into Sunday’s Checker O’Reilly Auto Parts 500, Martin trails Johnson by 73 points — just as he did to Rusty Wallace some 20 years ago. Say what you will of his chances, he is in an enviable position; the pressure is all but off, and he returns to a track he dominated at and won in April. It was, in fact, the track and a win that got him back into the winner’s circle, as well as title contention.

Sure, it might be a long shot, as the late-season surges and purges during the course of the last of 20 years have continued to deny Martin the championship he so richly deserves. Should he prevail, it would be a fitting way to earn his long-awaited title and would serve as a tribute to his fallen friend, Alan Kulwicki, whom he fondly remembered in the final laps at Phoenix this April and recognized as a man he likely would have been racing against for the win, were he still with us.

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