Cup dominance has precedent

MARTINSVILLE, Va. -- Mark Martin has had the best of both worlds.

While much has been made this season of the dominance of Hendrick Motorsports and its affiliated teams in the Sprint Cup Series – Martin included – it's not the first time such success has been enjoyed by a Cup organization.

During 2005, when only 10 drivers qualified for the Chase, all five from Roush Racing – then Martin, Kurt Busch, Carl Edwards, Greg Biffle and Matt Kenseth – made the Chase.

Together, the group racked up 15 wins but failed to win the championship. Tony Stewart won the title with Edwards and Biffle tying for second.

Entering today's Tums 500 at Martinsville Speedway, Hendrick teams find themselves in a similar situation.

Three of Hendrick's four Cup drivers – Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon and Martin – made the Chase and remain in contention for the championship with five races left. Two others who use Hendrick chassis and engines – Stewart and Ryan Newman – also made the Chase. Together, they have 16 wins in 31 races.

"It's definitely Hendrick's time in the sunshine right now," said Busch, who made the Chase this season with Penske Racing.

"Those guys obviously have won the last three championships, and so far in this year's Chase, if you're not a Hendrick car or affiliated with Hendrick, you haven't won yet."

He's right.

Martin, Johnson (three) and Stewart have won the Chase races. Newman will start from the pole in today. Johnson (twice) and Martin also have won poles.

"You have to realize at that time in 2005 that was the best it had ever been as far as teams working together, multiple teams working together at Roush," said Martin, in his first season driving full-time for Hendrick.

"We had a lot of years where we had struggles with that, getting it that good. But that was the best year with the most harmony between all the drivers and crew chiefs. We had really good stuff."

Martin had one win, 12 top-five and 19 top-10s during 2005 in the No.6 Ford. This season, Martin has five wins, 12 top-five and 18 top-10s and is second in the standings, 90 behind leader Johnson.

"With Hendrick it feels a lot like 2005. It certainly is the best I've ever seen a group work together off the race track to make their stuff the best stuff on the race track," Martin said.

"It's still on the race track no matter how you guys like to cover it. On the race track we still race each other. We are still competitors."

Biffle, still at Roush, believes Hendrick's run this season is "very similar" to Roush's in 2005.

"All of the cars competed very well. I can remember those were the good old days when we had all five of our cars running really good," Biffle said.

"We kind of had, I don't know, a secret, but our cars were running faster than everybody else's and it's nice to be in that position. But that kind of faded."

One difference is the advent of the new car used in the series since the time of Roush's dominance. While Hendrick has excelled for the most part with the car's development, Roush has not made as many gains.

"We kind of sat in our old ways and sort of polished and fine-tuned our set-up, which we probably need to take a different route," Biffle said.

"Last year wasn't bad for us, either – nine wins for Carl and we had two – but it's funny how it all goes in cycles."

And right now is Hendrick's turn.

"Right now, I don't see any weak spots at Hendrick Motorsports," Busch said. "There's the three of them running out front.

"If you take four Hendrick cars out of the equation, it looks like anyone can get a top-five. But you can't get those top-fives because those guys have them all plugged up."

Hendrick vs. Roush

Hendrick Motorsports and its affiliated teams account for five of the 12 drivers in this year's Chase and 16 of the 31 race victories. How does that compare to Roush's dominant season?

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