Mark Martin does it again and adds a Dick Trickle reference

Heck of a performance Saturday night by Mark Martin in winning the Southern 500. Look deeper into the win and some things are revealed -- all of them not so pleasant for Hendrick Motorsports. And yes, I'll get to the Dick Trickle reference but a few other things first.

Give credit to Martin for outrunning Jimmie Johnson at the end to win. It was impressive. It really makes you wonder just how he would be dominating this series if he hadn't had the engine failures at California and Vegas or finished last at Dega in the big crash early. Consider that Martin has finished 31st or worse in four of the first 11 races and yet he's 11th in the points. He's been fast all year. If he avoids trouble and can keep this pace going, he certainly could be a serious challenger for the title. But that's getting ahead of ourselves for now.

Did you notice that 6 of the top 7 finishers Saturday were in Henrick equipment?

1. Mark Martin -- Hendrick Motorsports

2. Jimmie Johnson -- Hendrick Motorsports

3. Tony Stewart -- Stewart-Haas (which uses Hendrick chassis, engines and technical support)

4. Ryan Newman -- Stewart-Haas (see Stewart)

5. Jeff Gordon -- Hendrick Motorsports

7. Brad Keselowski -- Hendrick Motorsports

Hmm, who's missing? Uh, the 88 of Dale Earnhardt Jr, who finished 27th. This is the fourth time in the last five races Dale Jr has finished 20th or worse. Dale Jr has more finishes of 20th or worse (six) than finishes inside the top 20 (five) this year. If you want to pile on, Scott Speed finished 26th, driving Joe Nemechek's car, a car Speed hadn't been in until today. Speed took over that ride since he failed to qualify and Nemechek has gotten some of his cars from Red Bull so there were some ties there.

Back to Junior. You have to start thinking if car owner Rick Hendrick is ready to make some sort of change with Dale Jr.'s team. This would be a great time to do so with the all-star race coming up this week. Wouldn't be surprised to see a few changes this week in the sport. Make a change now with a team and they have the non-points All-star event to work some kinks out before making a run at the Chase.

Dale Jr. is 18th in the points (he was 18th entering the race). He trails 12th-place by 89 points The point difference isn't too bad but it's the number of people between Dale Jr and the final spot for the Chase that gets to be a concern.

There's no doubt this start is taking a toll on  Dale Jr.  Just look at his body language. You sense that the confidence could be shaken. His head seems to droop more often, the voice is a bit lower and softer at times. You don't see that upbeat Junior as often, the one who was ready to tackle another challenge. No doubt this isn't a fun time for him as his teammates beat everyone and even a partial teammate in Brad Keselowski has already won a race.

What should be a big concern for Junior fans is that the upcoming summer stretch is often when he falters. Maybe a shakeup is what this team needs.

Enough about Junior and back to Martin, whose confidence is as high as I've seen in years. His victory Saturday was his 2nd this year -- the first time since 1999 that he's won more than one race in a season. I asked him how hard it is to not be greedy and think about wins more often instead of relishing them as he used when his attitude was more pessimistic. Here's some of what Martin said:

"My answer to that is be careful. Don't set yourself up. I'm just very, very happy right now. I don't need to say we're going to win a whole bunch of races this year.

"It's OK to have the passion, it's OK to have the drive but you can't let it tear you apart.''

QUICK HITS

# Joey Logano tied his career best with a ninth-place finish. Logano looked smooth and strong all night and did a good job of listening to crew chief Greg Zipadelli. At one point as Zipadelli discussed pit strategy, Logano replied: "Whatever you say, you've done this more than me.''

# Carl Edwards wasn't thrilled that a tap from teammate Greg Biffle sent him into the wall. Edwards finished 32nd. "That was nice of my teammate to wreck me,'' Edwards radioed his crew.

# Denny Hamlin fought back to finish 13th. Was involved in a few incidents that ruined his chances but perserved. That's what you have to do some days.

# Kyle Busch finished 34th after a tire went down and he slammed into the wall. He now has finished 17th or worse in five of the last six races. The lone exception was his win at Richmond last week.

# The race featured a record 17 cautions.

And, no I haven't forgotten your Dick Trickle reference:

Mark Martin was asked how he avoided all the chaos on the track. He referenced Trickle:

"Dick Trickle told me back in 1977 something that kind of irritated me. He told me, "In order to finish first, first you must finish.' What's that tell you? He wouldn't have told me that if I hadn't been wrecking. I was a young man and I was in the gas and I was knocking front clips off. He told me that and that's the truth. I guess some of those other guys haven't learned that yet and I guess that's OK.  A lot of people eliminated themselves.''

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