Mark Martin scores season-best 8th place finish at Talladega

Either Rick Hendrick is reading my angry blog posts about Mark Martin having mediocre equipment, or the Hendrick Motorsports teams really had good racecars this weekend. Chances are “Mr. H” hasn’t stopped by the blog here lately, so it must be option No. 2.

The boys of HMS started in the top four spots, and nearly finished that way too at Talladega.

Coming to the white flag the old men of HMS, Jeff Gordon and Mark Martin, rocketed to the lead. Martin’s red, white and blue No. 5 pushed Gordon’s dark red No. 24. The tandem had worked well all day. Lurking behind them were their other two teammates, Jimmie Johnson and Dale Earnhardt Jr.

“When we got the lead, coming to the white, it was probably too early,” Gordon said. “Those guys were going to get a run on us. We just tried to block the bottom.”

Martin and Gordon battle Bowyer and Harvick on the final lap (Getty Images for NASCAR)

Well, kind of. Gordon and Martin came off of the final turn about a lane and a half higher than the bottom groove, as they attempted to side-draft the two-car tandem of Clint Bowyer and Kevin Harvick.

Johnson and Jr. ducked low, and Martin’s attempt to dive in front of them was too late. They were already past.

Earnhardt Jr and Johnson pass Martin and Gordon (Getty Images for NASCAR)

“I had a chance to win,” the 52-year-old Martin said after the race. “Jeff and I were leading on the white flag lap and man, you couldn’t ask any more than that. We had a crack at it and didn’t manage to pull it off. But I had a good time today.”

The eight cars finished within .145 seconds of one another (Getty Images for NASCAR)

For the third time all season Martin finished in the top ten. He started the season with a top ten at Daytona and also finished tenth at Martinsville. Gordon also marked his third top five of the season. He won at Phoenix and finished fifth at Martinsville.

Johnson and Earnhardt Jr. have climbed to second and third in the points with a strong season so far. Martin and Gordon are 13th and 14th in the standings. Gordon would qualify for the Chase as one of the “wild card” entries and Martin sits 16 markers back of Paul Menard who would qualify for being 11th in Sprint Cup points.

With next weekend being an off weekend for the Sprint Cup guys it’ll be at least a week more before you see if the HMS guys were just good for one weekend, or if the big offseason switch is really going to pay off.

Oh, and if you’re reading Mr. Hendrick, thanks for joining me. Hope to see you at Kentucky and Indianapolis later this season.

And if you’re not Mr. Hendrick, thanks for joining me anyway. Have a good Monday.