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Is Mark Martin the Place Card For Kasey Kahne at Hendrick Motorsports?

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Okay, now that Dale Earnhardt Jr. has been awarded Jeff Gordon’s equipment, team and crew chief, just what does Mark Martin have to look forward to?

Martin will now drive the equipment that Junior has struggled with especially the last two seasons at Hendrick Motorsports.  He will also have Lance McGrew as his new crew chief.

McGrew is a technical guy who had a failure to communicate with Earnhardt Jr.  Martin is more of a technical driver who is able to give great feedback on how to set up a car.

[media-credit name=”CIA Stock Photo” align=”alignright” width=”300″][/media-credit]With that being said, it sounds like McGrew and Martin are quite the good pairing.

Martin is in his final year at Hendrick Motorsports which makes him a lame duck driver, as the saying goes.  Typically a driver in the last year of their contract fails to perform optimally.

McGrew Knows he will move on to other duties at HMS or elsewhere after the 2011 season when Kenny Francis comes on board as Kasey Kahne’s crew chief.

Place cards are placed at the seat a guest is to occupy at the table.  You have to wonder if Kasey Kahne’s place card is on Mark Martin at the HMS table.

It would be easy to surmise the new No. 5 car will just continue to make a mediocre showing if Martin and McGrew end up butting heads.  If it was a driver other than Mark Martin, it could be easy to assign low expectations to the team.

Martin wants to go out as a winner at HMS.  He was second to Jimmie Johnson, the perennial NASCAR Sprint Cup Champion in 2009.

For whatever reason he and his crew chief, Alan Gustafson, just failed to get up to speed this season and lost the momentum from the prior year.  Martin ended up just outside the Chase contenders, 13th in the point standings.

Martin fought hard for months to dissuade the media and disbelievers that he would be the one leaving Hendrick Motorsports to make room for Kasey Kahne in 2011.  He said he would stay and drive the No. 5 GoDaddy.com car and that is what he is going to do.

His intent was to finish the last year of his contract as planned, regroup with Gustafson and go for wins in the coming season.  The one thing he didn’t count on was the loss of Gustafson, a crew chief he worked so well with.

Now as we wait for the kickoff of the new season at Daytona International Speedway in February, it will be like the toss of a coin before a football game.

Will Mark Martin get the winning side of the coin or will he get the side that makes him the designated place card at Hendrick Motorsports?

Comments

6 responses to “Is Mark Martin the Place Card For Kasey Kahne at Hendrick Motorsports?”

  1. sylvia richardson Avatar
    sylvia richardson

    old man rick did it again 2 my driver. {THANKS FOR NOTHING…. GO MARK.

    Reply
  2. Marybeth Avatar
    Marybeth

    …or we could ponder why JG wasn’t given McGrew as a cc instead of Gustafson…? We have heard for 2 years that the problem with the 88 was that Jr. could not give feedback info correctly. That Jr. was not the problem, not McGrew. So why wasn’t JG paired with McGrew instead of Gustafson…?
    @Rob, Perhaps you missed in either Chicago or Mich. when the announcers said that JJ & JG had the 2 new 2nd generation cars. None for Jr. At Charlotte, JJ & MM had new cars. Jr. was driving the 1st car Lance had made for him in July, 2009. Best equipment, & cc…?
    Bobbie, The 8th Most Popular Driver Award for Jr. :)

    Reply
  3. Rob from Illinois Avatar
    Rob from Illinois

    The way I look at it is that Hendrick has been catering to Earnhardt since the halfway point of ’09. I am sure that the best of the best has been shoved his way already. This crew/shop swap is nothing but a band-aid on gaping wound. Don’t get me wrong…he is one of only 43 every week who does this so he is obviously a good racecar driver I just don’t know if he has the commitment to make in today’s NASCAR. As far as Mark Martin is concerned, although not sure, this may be a blessing in disguise. If he gets the stuff Jr. has been driving he may just win the cup because I am sure that all the stuff he has been getting is “top shelf” material to try to get “Mr. NASCAR” back to the front!!!!!! Just my thoughts.

    Reply
  4. Bobbie Avatar
    Bobbie

    Why don’t we rephrase your statement to ask why does it matter since all the drivers have equal equipment and resources at HMS?

    Or perhaps we should ask why was Mark given better equipment as the new driver at HMS since you imply he getting Jr’s leftover junk.

    Or why is Lance McGrew a crew chief at all given his most recent win was with Martin during a Nationwide race. The irony there being the car was owned by Dale Jr. And I suppose I should ignore the fact that he won by wrecking the lead cars one of which was his NW teammate and former JRM driver Brad Keselowski.

    Reply
  5. Jamerson Avatar
    Jamerson

    As a huge Mark Martin fan, I really want to see him go out with a bang at Hendrick. I will admit… I was mad that Rick broke up Mark and Alan and paired Mark with Lance, who easily appears to be the worst crew chief at Hendrick. Its easy to see why… Kasey is probably bringing Kenny Francis with him from Red Bull next year, and if you’re going to axe one of the four Hendrick crew chiefs, the obvious choice is Lance. For Mark’s sake, I really hope he and Lance work really well together. Who knows… Mark has been rumored to be going into team ownership after his tenure at Hendrick ends. Perhaps if he and Lance hit it off really well and have a great year together, then Lance could leave Hendrick to help Mark start up Mark Martin Racing an HMS satellite team.

    Reply

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