Mark Martin and No. 5 team look forward to 2010

Mark Martin had a dream season in 2009, capturing a career high in poles and winning five races, the most he’d won since 1998. In any other year, Martin probably would have won the Sprint Cup, but he couldn’t outperform his teammate Jimmie Johnson, who Martin referred to numerous times during the season as, “Superman”.

So, what does the 51-year-old, 26-year veteran do for an encore?

Well, for starters, Martin won the pole for the Daytona 500, but it’ll take more than winning poles to compete for the Sprint Cup in 2010. As he found out last season, he’s going to have to win races, plural.

He’ll probably have to deal with Johnson and Jeff Gordon, not to mention the possibility of his HMS building mate Dale Earnhardt Jr., who is looking strong at Daytona. And that’s just within his team.

In Yahoo! Sports’s preseason countdown, a panel of five NASCAR writers picked the top 20 finishers for the upcoming season. Mark Martin came in at No. 7 on the list, which doesn’t surprise me at all.

Why? Because Mark Martin is always overlooked, and flies under the radar.

“By the way, yeah, it’s nice. I’m still under the radar compared to Danica. Even though we got the pole, we’re still under the radar,” he said. “That’s cool. That’s my style.”

For a guy who was declared too old to drive by many folks, I’d say he’s off to a decent start. But how long can Martin sustain this type of performance? Apparently he doesn’t want to talk about getting old anymore.

“Don’t go there,” he said, laughing. “Don’t go there. Let’s not even talk about that. I’m just loving life right now. I’m going to be loving life every time I get a chance to strap in that 5 car.”

And every time he straps in, the fans I told you about yesterday get that much more excited. Even Martin is fired up about it. He said, “Well, 2010 will be a challenge to have as much fun as we had in 2009 because part of the time, I don't know about Alan, maybe not for Alan but for me, I was surprising myself. It was a surprise. And so we have higher expectations, or at least I do, you know, this year.”

Alan Gustafson, Martin’s crew chief, knows this season could be his shot to bring his childhood idol his first Sprint Cup title.

“I’m real excited about. The 11 years I’ve been [at Hendrick], this is the best position we’ve been in to go win a championship,” Gustafson said. “This is the best position we’ve been in to have out two teams succeed. I don’t see why that won't happen.”

Gustafson continued, praising Martin with this long comment: “Then when my hero is driving the car makes it that much sweeter. It’s really cool for me. Side note: When you can get a record with Mark, Mark has enough records to have his own record book, but when you can get a new one with him, we’ve done it a few times since he drove his car, done something he’s never done in his career, be on the pole for the Daytona 500, something he’s never done, I’m really proud to be able to do something he’s never done, because he’s done an awful lot. That’s really cool for me, too.” (An AP story by Jenna Fryer published earlier today recaps this feeling: http://sports.yahoo.com/nascar/news;_ylt=Au5W4dxKp34d.GvMuIGPQlDov7YF?slug=ap-nascar-daytona-gustafson&prov=ap&type=lgns)

He sounds like I would if I had his job. And Mark, well, he’s just excited about how this season will turn out, no matter how the Yahoo! Poll turned out.

“I’m so happy to be at the racetrack. There’s no place in the world that I’d rather be. I’ve said that before. There’s no place in the world I’d rather be,” he said.

And although the sports writers with some clout think Martin will finish seventh, this sports writer thinks he’ll do better. After all, he’s currently the guy everyone will be chasing come Sunday.