Updated July 6
Three restrictor-plate races down, one more to go.
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| Mark Martin fell out of the Chase with a 38th-place finish at Daytona. (AP) |
NASCAR drivers, on the other hand, probably aren't looking to that date as fondly. Coming smack dab in the middle of the Chase (race 6 of 10), championship contenders have to be especially cautious.
Survival is the key and some have proved better at it -- or luckier -- than others.
Mark Martin has not been one of the lucky ones. Despite three victories on the season, Martin is out of the top 12 at the moment, with his results at the restrictor-plate tracks one of the major factors holding him back.
A 16th-place finish in the season-opening Daytona 500 wasn't too bad, but April's race at Talladega and the return trip to Daytona were nightmares.
He didn't make it past the sixth lap before a wreck collected him at Talladega, leaving him with a 43rd-place finish.
Saturday night he made it to lap 12 before a wreck of his own doing knocked him out of contention.
"You know, you go out here and you race and we take our lumps and we take our good days," Martin said prior to the race. "Some days we get more than we deserve and some days we don't get what we deserve. We just go out here and do our thing and hope it turns out well."
Unfortunately for Martin, it has not turned out well too often of late at the restrictor-plate tracks. After finishing 38th at Daytona, Martin fell two spots in the standings to 13th, 65 points behind Kasey Kahne.
Power Rankings after Daytona:
| POWER RANKINGS | ||
| Current | Driver | Previous |
| 1 | Tony Stewart | 1 |
| It's only fitting that he won the race after hogging the lead most of the night. | ||
| 2 | Jeff Gordon | 2 |
| He was having issues with blistering tires before getting tangled up in the big mid-race wreck. | ||
| 3 | Jimmie Johnson | 3 |
| Earns his first top five and just his second top 10 in seven races at Daytona since winning the Daytona 500 in 2006. | ||
| 4 | Kurt Busch | 4 |
| Continues to knock on the door for a win at a restrictor-plate track. He has finished fourth or better in four of his past five trips to Daytona. | ||
| 5 | Carl Edwards | 6 |
| No doubt he was having flashbacks to Talladega. "It was a crazy, crazy finish," Edwards said. "I thought I wanted to be up there racing with those guys, then I saw that [Kyle Busch wrecking] and I was just fine with where I was at." | ||
| 6 | Juan Pablo Montoya | 7 |
| He now has eight top 10s on the season with five coming in the past seven races. | ||
| 7 | Denny Hamlin | 11 |
| He and Stewart were the class of the field. But with Stewart snagging the win, Hamlin had to settle for his third top-five finish in the past four races. | ||
| 8 | Mark Martin | 5 |
| Since picking up his third win of the year back at Michigan, Martin has followed with finishes of 35th, 14th and 38th. | ||
| 9 | Ryan Newman | 8 |
| He has hit a little bump in the road with four consecutive finishes of 17th or worse. | ||
| 10 | Kyle Busch | 10 |
| Wreck in the last lap left him with his fifth finish outside the top 10 in the past six races. | ||
| 11 | Greg Biffle | 9 |
| Never a factor at any point, spending just 14 laps in the top 15 all night. | ||
| 12 | Kasey Kahne | 12 |
| The sensational image of his collision with Kyle Busch notwithstanding, Kahne was able to leave Daytona with a 15th-place finish and move up one spot to 12th in the standings. | ||
| 13 | David Reutimann | 13 |
| After starting at the rear of the field because of an engine change, he had managed to work his way into the top 15 before being collected in the mid-race big one. | ||
| 14 | Matt Kenseth | 14 |
| Gets a much-needed top 10 after four consecutive finishes of 16th or worse had him tumbling down the standings. | ||
| 15 | Clint Bowyer | 15 |
| He had just joined the top 10 when he became a victim of the mid-race carnage. | ||
