Mark Martin would have made the chase

This post was not written by me.
I copied and pasted it from one of my favorite websites, OneBadWheel.com, and you can view this site here http://www.onebadwheel.com/blog/archives/2007/09/09/how-mark-martin-made-the-chase/ ......................
The reason I am posting it here is because many IP members have stated displeasure with Mark getting in the 8 car next season, and have stated such idiotic comments as "he is all washed up" or "he should retire". The fact is, if Mark had ran a full schedule, Junior and Kevin Harvick would be out of the chase watching Mark run in the chase.

If it wasn’t unofficial, I’d call it official. Mark Martin would have made the Chase For The Nextel Cup.

I’ve been tracking Mark Martin’s race results through the year under 3 scenarios.

1) Mark Martin’s actual race points and position in the NASCAR point standings. Officially, Mark is currently 24th.
2) Mark Martin’s actual race points PLUS giving him 34 points, which is the MINIMUM race points possible, for the races he skipped. Under this scenario, Mark Martin would be in 18th place in the NASCAR standings.
3) Mark Martin’s actual race points PLUS adding in Mark Martin’s AVERAGE race points at the track’s he skipped. Under this scenario, Mark Martin would have ended the first 26 races with 3349 points. Putting him in 7th place in the standings.
This would have knocked Kevin Harvick out of the Chase by 5 points to Martin Truex Jr. And, Mark would be seeded in 11th place in the Chase For The Nextel Cup with 5000 points.
I’ll continue tracking Mark Martin’s “What If” Points for the next 10 races to see where he might have finished the year.