Whitehead: Martin ready for final title run next year

Since this column originates in sunny South Florida, I can only assume many readers will be sitting in the Homestead grandstands this weekend, watching all three major NASCAR series wrap up the 2008 season.Mark Martin won't be there, though. He has other plans.The Daytona resident reworked his schedule a few weeks back so he could finish his part-time association with Dale Earnhardt Inc. at Phoenix last weekend, not at Homestead. Martin regrouped last week in the desert from an early pit-road miscue, regained the lead lap and posted his 15th top-15 finish in 24 starts while sharing seat-time with Tampa native Aric Almirola.But here's something to watch for in 2009: Don't expect Martin, the full-time driver of the No. 5 for Hendrick Motorsports, to be battling back much and be over a lap behind the likes of Jimmie Johnson, Carl Edwards and Kyle Busch.In fact, I'll go one better. I would not be surprised at all if Martin's is the second-best Chevy in the Hendrick camp early in the season, trailing only Johnson and being ahead of teammates Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt Jr. -- at least for a while.Recently, Martin has started off well. He almost won the Daytona 500 last year, losing to Kevin Harvick by .020 seconds in the ninth-closest finish in NASCAR history, then held the points lead for three straight weeks before getting out of the car as planned and halting his race schedule.Gordon and Junior, meanwhile, have good, Chase-appearing teams, but something is missing from putting them into the elite top three or five cars in the series. Actually, crew chief changes would probably help both drivers, winners of just one race this year.Martin should be excited about the No. 5 team, which has a top-notch crew chief in Alan Gustafson and really good equipment for an organization that is capping off its third consecutive title. No knock on Casey Mears, but that team is ready for some stability with a veteran driver who can win on a weekly basis and make a serious championship run.At Phoenix, Martin -- who will be 50 when Speedweeks 2009 rolls around -- thanked DEI for giving him the opportunity to run part-time and called it "the most fun that I've had in my career." But the stakes will be raised here soon: The weekly grind of full-time racing next year, then a partial schedule in 2010 as he prepares the team for his replacement.Two rumors concerning Martin at Homestead floated out there this week -- one that he was going to jump in the No. 5 to get a head start on next year, the other that he would replace Scott Speed in the No. 84. But neither of those was true, so Martin will be something that he usually isn't on a Sunday race day -- idle.You won't see Martin in South Florida this weekend, unless some last-minute deal is struck, but that's unlikely. He'll be back home in Daytona planning for 2009 and a final run at that grand prize that has eluded him since 1982.Championship glory.(Bill Whitehead covers NASCAR for Scripps Treasure Coast Newspapers and can be reached at wwhitehe<P>ircc.net.)