NASCAR legend Mark Martin making another championship push these days. It's an uphill climb

If Mark Martin pulls this off, maybe he can also rid us of the designated hitter and those phantom roughing-the-passer penalties.

It’s a big if, though, because there’s a heavy bank vault in the way.

Martin, of all people, has become the pied piper for longtime fans who’d like to see champions crowned the way they were crowned during the first five-plus decades of NASCAR instead of the past two-plus decades. And certainly different than how they’ve been crowned the past 11 years.

The longtime fan favorite, now 66 and 12 years retired from racing, is shouting his desires in all the modern ways — social media and podcasts, specifically.

But of late, you can imagine him settling down for a couple days in his beloved motorcoach and preaching the season-long-champ gospel to a large huddle of fellow Good Sammers in Weaverville, Walla Walla or wherever. 

Martin insists the hardest of the hardcore stock-car fans never cottoned to the playoff system, still dislike it, and sure as hell don’t like a final winner-take-all race that, for instance, last year made Joey Logano the champ with the highest-ever average finish (17.1) over the whole season.

Motorcoach life 🏁 pic.twitter.com/omZbvkepwg

— Mark Martin (@markmartin) July 1, 2021

The old NASCAR way broke Mark Martin's heart at times

A tad bit of irony here with Mark Martin, a giant of a bantamweight who motored out of the Ozarks to win 40 Cup Series races and 96 overall when you include NASCAR’s Xfinity and Truck Series — also a combined nine championships in ASA (four) and IROC (five).

Ironic because he champions a championship method in which he was famously a four-time runner-up — once, in 1990, by just 26 points in a season when his team was penalized 46 points for a minor technical infraction. Instead of Martin's first, it was Dale Earnhardt's fifth. 

Also, late in Martin's career (2009), the last of four times he raced under a pre-2014 postseason format, the playoff points reset moved him from sixth to first at regular-season’s end. He benefited from that new-age "gimmick" but also earned it by leading the series in regular-season wins. Ten races later, he had his fifth runner-up championship finish.

Most NASCAR Cup Series points accumulated from 1990 to 1999.

1- Mark Martin 43,791
2- Dale Earnhardt 43,054
3- Rusty Wallace 39,678
4- Dale Jarrett 38,960
5- Terry Labonte 37,686
6- Ricky Rudd 36,084
7- Ken Schrader 35,932
8- Bill Elliott 35,753
9- Sterling Marlin 35,551
10-… pic.twitter.com/xEhdtkqR6V

— NASCAR Classics (@NASCARClassics) March 11, 2025

If Martin had raced his entire career under today’s 16-driver playoff format, which is whittled to 12 then eight and finally to four for the winner-take-all finale, who knows, he might’ve won seven championships. Might’ve won two. Might still have just as many as you and Buckshot Jones combined.

It’s also easy to suggest Martin is the perfect man to preach NASCAR’s Old Testament, because he knows what it demanded and certainly remembers the height of that hill. 

But it took an odd twist (in my opinion, anyway) this week when Martin said he’d end his campaign on one condition. NASCAR must state the obvious: The playoffs placate the networks, whose contractual bottom lines include three commas, as in B,ILL,ION,S.

Said by a smart young racer. https://t.co/bhvnOqPJxQ

— Mark Martin (@markmartin) July 26, 2025

Everyone knows why all the salmon fall in line

Yes, the playoff system was developed in 2004 to heighten late-season drama at a time when the NFL swallows the universe. “Heightened drama,” in theory and probably in practice to a certain degree, means some extra viewers who might be lured to Packers-Lions or Bills-Dolphins if their favorite driver wasn't still in the proverbial pennant race.

NASCAR’s blanket network deal was in its fourth year in ’04, and you can waste time on the chicken-or-egg debate — did NASCAR broach the playoff idea first, or did TV? Seems obvious the networks would like the idea, and seems obvious NASCAR would learn to love it if its largest (by far) benefactor winked and nodded in that direction.

Not related to today’s controversy, but I’m convinced it’s impossible to hate/dislike Mark Martin.

Seriously. I’m pretty sure I’m more likely to find Bigfoot than a Mark Martin hater.#NASCARpic.twitter.com/h9e0tiCZXm

— Digital Gashouse (@DigitalGashouse) July 22, 2025

Remember, all the salmon don't call a meeting to vote on which way to swim. They all know the rewards await upstream.

For his own reasons, Mark Martin just wants to hear it said out loud.

“I’m smart enough to know that the TV broadcast, NASCAR and the owners are all addicted to the revenue that they bring,” he said on one of the NASCAR-themed podcasts out there (“Door Bumper Clear”). 

No crime there, since they’re not addicted to cash in the manner of Bonnie and Clyde.

“It’s a different day and age, but I will shut up leading that charge when they tell us the truth,” Martin continued. “I know what the truth is, but just come out and say, ‘Hey, we know the majority of the fans would rather see a full 36-race championship, but here’s why we’re not going to do it.’ 

“Just do that and that’s enough for me.”

Yes, yes, yes, of course it’s about the networks and the lure of billions versus millions, but it’s not just NASCAR. Every sports-entertainment industry from coast to coast and beyond has expanded its playoffs and tournaments to increase revenue. Even the PGA Tour took delivery on a playoff system, thanks to FedEx.

NO WE DONT https://t.co/fbL5M0VFlI

— Mark Martin (@markmartin) July 22, 2025

Within NASCAR, there are indeed serious discussions about playoff changes. The likely change, if one comes, would be something other than the one-race finale to settle things among the four survivors — maybe a two- or three-race championship chase to better identify a worthy champ.

Sure, there’s always the possibility the networks will say, hey, let’s go back to the old way and see how it shakes out. But that would take a groundswell of seismic proportions.

You stand a better chance of seeing a salmon swimming downstream.

— Email Ken Willis at [email protected]

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: If NASCAR championship needs retrofit, Mark Martin will hammer it home