What's Happened to Mark Martin and Jeff Burton in 2011?

By Jerry Bonkowski

Raleigh, N.C. — With the upcoming off-weekend, now is the time for Sprint Cup teams to toast their success thus far or lick their wounds.

Obviously, the 1-2 finish of teammates Ryan Newman and Tony Stewart on Sunday at New Hampshire gave Stewart Haas Racing a huge boost. Not only in momentum, but also in the standings.

Sure, Newman only moved up one spot in the standings with his win, but he closed to within one point of seventh-ranked Jeff Gordon. Meanwhile, although Stewart remains in 11th place, he is now tied with 10th-ranked Denny Hamlin as each are just 82 points back. Hamlin gets the edge here, though, because he has a win and two more top-fives than Stewart on the season.

And much to the chagrin of his fans, the freefall for Dale Earnhardt Jr., continued at New Hampshire. Junior is now ninth in the Sprint Cup standings. He is a mere seven points ahead of Hamlin and has a slight edge over Stewart with one additional top-five and one more top-10 finish in the first 19 races.

Yes, it seems more and more possible that the No. 88 could miss this season's Chase after looking like a near-lock to make it earlier this year.

But what I wanted to address the most in today's column is a question that gets asked more often with each passing week: "What's wrong with Mark Martin and Jeff Burton?"

Indeed, Martin sits an uncharacteristic 20th in the standings as he closes in on the end of his tenure at Hendrick Motorsports. Once this season ends, Martin will become a free agent, replaced in the Hendrick stable by Kasey Kahne.

Martin hasn't forgotten how to drive, but it gets more depressing and frustrating after each race to see him drop further down the standings ladder. For a guy who almost stole the championship from Jimmie Johnson a couple years ago, it's really sad to see the proud Martin endure less-than-proud finishes.

And then there's Burton in 2011: No wins. No top-fives. Not even one top-10. What the heck has happened to the pride of South Boston, Va.?

Granted, Sprint Cup racing is a game of highs and lows. No one can expect to stay on top forever. Even Johnson is going to break his championship string eventually.

But what I am having such a hard time rationalizing this season is how veteran drivers like Martin and Burton – who have close to 50 years of experience on the Cup circuit between them – can look so bad. Almost as if they're fresh-off-the-farm rookies.

Even though both drivers have two of the top organizations behind them, they've both made uncharacteristic mistakes, suffered through several pit crew issues, have been involved in an abnormal number of wrecks and, frankly, neither seems to be having much fun out there right now.

We know Martin will be moving on after this season. I've heard rumblings that he may go back on a part-time basis to Earnhardt Ganassi Racing as part of a third team. I've also heard that if Carl Edwards bolts Roush Fenway Racing for Joe Gibbs Racing or another team, Martin could return to the place he began his Cup career and split a ride with Daytona 500 winner Trevor Bayne and Ricky Stenhouse, Jr.

Even though Martin will turn 53 in January, he still has some tread left on his tires. I can easily see him racing for another three more years - albeit most likely as a part-timer rather than a full-time Sprint Cup regular. But regardless of where he winds up, if Martin continues to have poor outings like he's had much of this season, don't be surprised if 2012 winds up being his last season, period.

As much of a conundrum as Martin has been this season, the younger Burton brother is like a man who has lost his road map and appears helplessly lost. Some critics have said that the expansion of Richard Childress Racing back to four teams, plus the surprisingly strong showing from new teammate Paul Menard, has relegated Burton to last on the RCR food chain behind Kevin Harvick, Clint Bowyer and Menard.

I don't believe that at all, but something is definitely wrong with the driver of the No. 31. He's lost his edge somehow and somewhere, and the harder he looks to find it, the further he sinks.

If things continue downward the rest of this season for the 44-year-old Burton, it's a pretty safe bet that he'll end up with either his worst or second-worst career single-season finish since he entered Cup racing in 1993. With an average start of 19th and an average finish of almost 21st, Burton is not only all but eliminated from making the Chase this season – the only way he could still do it is to win two of the remaining seven pre-Chase races, which appears pretty unlikely right now – he'll be hard-pressed to even finish the year in the top-20 (he's currently 25th).

As can be expected, rumors have begun to fly hot and heavy. Some say Burton has lost his motivation to compete and doesn't have the edge he used to have. Given his performance, that could be a distinct possibility.

Other rumors have Burton being unhappy at RCR, even though he's denied such countless times. Some of those same rumors even envision Burton being out of RCR at season's end by choice – possibly his own or definitely that of team owner Richard Childress.

The latter I find hard to believe, as Burton has been such a key leader at RCR during its ups and downs over the last decade – he was virtually single-handedly the one who convinced Harvick to stay with the organization and sign a new long-term contract extension – and Childress is not the type of owner who turns his back on someone who has displayed such loyalty to the organization.

As for Burton leaving at season's end of his own accord, I don't see that either – unless he feels a change of scenery is what he needs to get his game back to the level we're all used to. Remember, he did that once before when he left Roush Racing for RCR, feeling he had gone as far as he could within the Roush camp.

Where would Burton go, if he did leave? That's a tough question, given the economic climate within the sport. Unless he could attract a high-dollar, full-time sponsor (or maybe take Caterpiller with him), Burton would find it rough going. Sure, he would be a good fit from a racing standpoint at places like Stewart Haas Racing or Michael Waltrip Racing, but unless the sponsorship dollars are there, it's doubtful either organization would expand to three teams in 2012, even if they were able to get a driver of Burton's talent and ability.

I'd hate to see Burton continue to wallow not only for the remainder of this year, but potentially into next season unless Childress can find a way to turn around the team's fortunes. And while the veteran six-time Cup championship team owner has shaken things up in the past to improve the lot of all his teams, it'd be hard for Childress to justify moving around crew chiefs or team members right now, given how well Harvick, Bowyer and Menard are doing this season.

Sooner or later, Martin's and Burton's fates have to start turning around for the positive. They're both too good to look as bad as they have this season.