Thursday, March 3rd 'What If' Question

For all that Mark Martin has accomplished in his career there are still some major parts missing on his resume.

They include things such as the Daytona 500, the Brickyard 400 and a championship. He's come close a few times. In 2002 he battled Tony Stewart but wasn't able to beat the No. 20 team. It also didn't help that just days before his team was penalized by NASCAR for an illegal part.

Then in 2007 Martin was leading the points early in the year but stepped out of the car to keep to his part-time schedule. That was one of the many years in which he said he was retiring. At the time he was driving for Bobby Ginn. And of course the year that will be most talked about is 2009 when he drove for Hendrick Motorsports and finished second in points. He won five races that year and was the sentimental favorite to capture the title.

The 2011 season is another final for Martin. He will not be returning to HMS next season but has said that he will race somewhere. One can only imagine that he's hanging on for as long as he possibly can in hopes of winning those prestigious races and the championship. But he struggled in 2010 and missed the Chase and has a new team this year, a team that struggled with Dale Earnhardt Jr. last year.

A championship just hasn't been and isn't in the cards for Martin. Just the years of coming oh so close and wondering what might have been. Many though will continue to talk about what he accomplished in 2009 as his greatest year.

But ...

What If M.Martin ran full 2007 season after leading points early on, would his 2009 season have been as impressive or successful? #NASCAR

@Talon64 Don't think 2009 would've been affected. Bsd on avg points per race, would've made Chase but finished 12th in 2007.

@BigBankHank18 nope, don't think DEI could of maintained that for 36 races

@cruetten tough to say.with so many team swaps (cup and NNS) in two years, it would've been tough to hold on to any momentum from 2007

Toby Christie (via Facebook) Not only that, but had that been the case where would Aric Almirola be right now? Remember he was the guy splitting time with Martin those seasons.

Patty Wells (via Facebook) a great journalist always provides us with "food for thought" thats you my girl :)