Hypothetical Question Game: Should Mark Martin Have Driven a Full-Schedule in 2007?

It’s a slow news day in the motorsports world so let’s play a game of hypotheticals for a moment: In 2007, Mark Martin signed a partial-schedule deal with MB2Racing and came just 0.020 of a second of winning the Daytona 500. He was beat to the line on that night by Kevin Harvick in the closest finish in race history.

He followed that up with two fifth-place finishes and a tenth at Fontana, Las Vegas and Atlanta, and was leading the standings at the end of week four. Martin was scheduled to give way to Regan Smith the following weekend and didn’t return to the team until week seven at Forth Worth.

In the two weeks away from the car, Martin had fallen from the points lead to 11^th, still in Chase contention and had even worked his way back to 10^th by week eight at Phoenix.

So my question is two-fold.

Should Martin have stayed in the car and chased a championship after such a compelling start to the season? And could he have won the championship had he stayed in the #01 for a full season?

Some notes to consider:

Jeff Gordon had the best statistical year of his career in 2007, picking up six wins and 30 top-10s in 36 races.

Jimmie Johnson had the most-dominating Chase since the inception of the playoff format up to that point, winning four of the final five races of the Chase, averaging a 4.9 average finish over than span. Johnson also won 10 races overall in 2007, en route to his second-straight championship.

Coming full-circle, after three full seasons with Hendrick Motorsports, Martin has signed with Michael Waltrip Racing to run a partial schedule much like he did from 2007-08. If he finds himself in a similar position to 2007, leading the standings, will he make the same decision?

Discuss.