NASCAR Cup Series

Chasers follow different paths to postseason

Published Sep. 14, 2009 7:15 p.m. ET

foxsports

The race to get into the Chase to the Sprint Cup is a marathon over 26 grueling races.

And for the eight teams that moved from pretenders to title contenders on Saturday night, that race was far from easy.

Sure, Tony Stewart was locked into the postseason after taking the green flag at Michigan, Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon followed suit at Bristol, and Denny Hamlin joined the Chase party after Atlanta. But for the remainder of the Chase candidates, their seasons were not nearly as consistent.

Meet the Chasers

Who's battling for the Sprint Cup championship? Larry McReynolds offers a look at the 2009 Chase for the Sprint Cup class.

Certainly, the lack of predictability created drama for the drivers. But in their quest to qualify for the Chase, many can point to one or two game-changing moments that improved their paths to the postseason.

Mark Martin — Martin holds the top seed in the Chase with four wins to his record, but he hit several challenges early in the season that dug the No. 5 Kellogg's team into a significant hole. With consecutive engine failures at California and Las Vegas and a 31st-place finish at Atlanta, Martin was 34th in the standings after just four races. A sixth-place finish at Bristol in March — his first top 10 of the season — began the steep climb back into contention. But it was his strong run at Phoenix, where he led 157 of 312 laps en route to his first win with the team, that Martin began picking up steam.

"I thought Phoenix was overwhelming, the realization of a dream," Martin said. "How long it had been since a won a race. A lot of people questioned whether I would win another race. I certainly questioned it myself."

Martin need not question himself anymore.