Mark Martin

After nearly winning the pole for today's NASCAR Sprint Cup race, Dale Earnhardt Jr. gave reporters a perfunctory recap of his qualifying lap and race car. Then NASCAR's most popular driver was asked about Mark Martin. Earnhardt took a deep breath, looked down at the microphone and let his affection flow for the 50-year-old veteran. "I'm real happy for him," Earnhardt said. "He was a bridesmaid for so many years, and so here's one guy that's pulling for him to win a championship this year because he's deserved it."

With the car companies failing, this is a sport that desperately needs some positive news. With corporate sponsorships falling, this is a sport that could use an uplifting story. With ticket sales floundering, this is a sport that yearns for something to feel good about. Now more than ever, the Daytona 500 needs Mark Martin to win today. He is what working America should strive to be in these dreadful economic times.

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Even die-hard NASCAR fans might need a program to follow who's who in the first few races this year, starting with today's season-opening Daytona 500. Several prominent drivers changed teams, changed numbers, changed primary sponsors, changed car colors and changed their brand of race car. There's also a fresh influx of drivers from open-wheel racing who moved to NASCAR, including Indianapolis 500 winners Sam Hornish Jr. and Dario Franchitti.

LAS VEGAS -- Mark Martin took Dale Earnhardt Jr. to Victory Lane by winning the NASCAR Nationwide Series Sam's Town 300 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, then immediately apologized for an accident he started in the closing laps. Martin, the winningest driver in NASCAR's No. 2 series, raced to the 48th victory of his career Saturday in a car owned by Earnhardt's JR Motorsports. But the win came at the expense of Carl Edwards and Brad Keselowski, who drives full-time for Earnhardt.

Veteran driver Mark Martin, taking one more stab at his first NASCAR Sprint Cup championship, said Friday he would drive a full season next year in the No. 5 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports. Martin, who has finished second in the championship standings four times in his 26-year career, will take over for Casey Mears, who last week was given his release after this season.

Sunday was the sixth anniversary of Dale Earnhardt's slamming into the Turn 4 wall on the last lap of the Daytona 500, a crash that cost the legendary stock car driver his life. Six years later, Kevin Harvick, the Bakersfield driver who succeeded Earnhardt behind the wheel of owner Richard Childress' Chevrolet, won one of the closest Daytona 500s in history after catching Mark Martin in Turn 4 on the last lap.

Could Mark Martin have a more bizarre six days? First, the debacle at Daytona. Now, the controversy at California. With only five laps left in the San Bernardino County 200 Craftsman Truck race, the man who almost won the Daytona 500 was run over from behind, spun out on a restart by Ron Hornaday Jr. Hornaday drives a truck owned by Kevin Harvick, the man who beat Martin by a few feet at Daytona as cars crashed behind them.

Mark Martin is only supposed to race the first four races of the season -- and only 22 overall -- for his new team, Bobby Ginn Racing, formerly MB2 Motorsports. With his fifth-place finish Sunday at California Speedway, the Daytona 500 runner-up is now leading the standings. That's not significant two races into the season, especially for a part-time driver, but it's the first time in the team's 11-year history that it has led.

While the debate raged about whether Mark Martin was deprived of winning the season-opening Daytona 500, Martin kept his focus on the next race at California Speedway. The 48-year-old veteran with the gray crew cut and deeply lined face qualified third for the Auto Club 500 at Fontana and finished fifth in Sunday's race in his No. 01 Ginn Racing Chevrolet.

Mark Martin stood inside his hauler and declared in his fast-talking manner that he has a good answer for the legacy question. "I just want to be remembered," said the veteran driver of the No. 6 Jack Roush Ford. "That's a big deal in itself. "Anyone who has been successful hates the thought of being forgotten. I'm a huge race fan, and I know that when you exit, it's gone. You're just not there anymore. That's the tough thing about this sport, there's no place for you after you're done."