For Mark Martin, the 1998 season wasn’t a failure.
It just felt like one.
Because no matter how fast he was, no matter how many races he won, there was no catching Jeff Gordon.
“By the way, we won the Winston in seven races that year and scored enough points to win the championship any other year except that year where Jeff Gordon won 13 races and destroyed us.”
A Championship Season That Still Fell Short
Martin’s 1998 campaign stands as one of the strongest seasons ever by a driver who did not win the NASCAR Cup Series title.
Driving the No. 6 Ford for Roush Racing, Martin won seven races and consistently ran at the front of the field. In most years, that kind of performance would have been more than enough to secure a championship.
But 1998 wasn’t most years.
Instead, it became a head-to-head battle with Gordon — one that quickly turned into a historic showcase of dominance by the No. 24 team.
The ‘Dream Team’ That Elevated Martin
Martin entered the 1998 season with confidence that his team had taken a major step forward.
Speaking on the “Door Bumper Clear” podcast, he described the overhaul that helped reshape his program heading into that year.
“From ’97, where we won, I think four races or so. To ’98, the only person on my team I kept was my spotter and Jimmy Fennig as crew chief, and maybe Dennis Ritchie, the truck driver. Everybody else was new. And Jimmy [Elledge] came on board. I think he was a rear tire changer and a general mechanic road crew. And I learned what an incredible racer he was. And we had such an incredible race team.”
The changes delivered immediate results. Martin was faster, more consistent, and more competitive than ever before.
It just happened to coincide with one of the most dominant seasons the sport has ever seen.
Jeff Gordon’s 1998 Run Was Historically Dominant
Gordon’s 13-win season in 1998 remains one of the most remarkable performances in modern NASCAR history.
The total is tied for the most wins in a single Cup Series season since Richard Petty recorded 13 victories in 1975. No driver in the modern era has surpassed that mark.
What made Gordon’s run even more impressive was how it unfolded.
After winning three of the first 15 races, Gordon surged in the second half of the season, collecting 10 wins over the final 18 races. That stretch included marquee events such as the Coca-Cola 600, Southern 500, Brickyard 400, and the second race at Daytona International Speedway.
It wasn’t just dominance. It was sustained, relentless execution week after week.
A Defining ‘What If’ in Mark Martin’s Career
Martin would go on to finish runner-up in the Cup Series standings multiple times, but 1998 remains the clearest example of how close he came to securing a championship.
It was a season where everything aligned — speed, consistency, and execution — only to be overshadowed by one of the greatest individual performances in NASCAR history.
Even now, his reflection on that year is simple and direct.
Despite doing everything it took to win a title, he ran into a version of Jeff Gordon that few drivers in any era could have beaten.
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