When Mark Martin saw the number he drew for qualifying -- 39th -- he really wasn't surprised.

Not much has gone right for the driver of the No. 6 Ford Taurus this season. His first thought on Friday, when he learned that he would roll onto Bristol Motor Speedway 39th to run his qualifying lap was that this was just one more blow in a season that's dealt him many.

So was he surprised, then, to have qualified second, right behind pole-sitter Jeff Gordon?

"I don't know," he said. "I don't remember (the lap). It went by so fast."

Martin sped around the half-mile, high-banked Tennessee track at 127.588 mph to secure his starting spot on the front row for Sunday's race. And just as he was able to turn his bad draw into a good day, he's hoping he can turn his struggling Roush Racing team around, also.

"My race team deserves it," he said. "They have done a winning job of keeping their morale up and keeping their nose to the grindstone. Just because we haven't had good luck on the race track this year and we've had some sub-par performances doesn't mean that they don't deserve the same kind of success that we've enjoyed in the past.

"So I would be real happy for them. It would be good for me, but these guys are the ones that deserve it. I've been blessed with a terrific career, with much more success than I probably even deserve, so I'm not feeling cheated right now. But I do feel like they've sort of been cheated a little bit."

From 1989 through 2000, Martin finished in the top-10 of the Winston Cup points standings each year. And after breaking that streak in 2001 by ending the season in 12th, he made a strong bid for his first title last year, finishing second -- 38 points behind champion Tony Stewart.

	Martin starts second on Saturday.

With his entire team returning in 2003, Martin believed he may finally break through and give Jack Roush -- the man for whom he's raced since 1988 -- his first Winston Cup title. But after starting out fifth in the standings after two races, the roller coaster ride this season has turned out to be hit its first drop.

The motor in Martin's Ford blew in races No. 3 and 4, thus beginning his two steps forward, three steps back trend.

He's 14th in the points standings, now, 13 spots behind teammate Matt Kenseth -- a fifth year racer who is on track to give Roush the title which has eluded him; the title which Martin has been unable to clinch.

Martin said he's not jealous that, at 31, Kenseth might win a championship that Martin, at 44, still seeks. When asked about it, he launches into one of the familiar Martin speeches about how lucky he's been and how much better than his wildest expectations his career has been. And, indeed, if not for the work Martin put in decades ago, Kenseth would not have his seat under the five-car Roush umbrella.

Still, the frustration over having come so close last season and now being so far this year is evident. Martin is willing to cut his losses, though. He'll stand for waiting another year to compete for the title. This year, though, he's not willing to give up.

A top-10 finish in the points race is not out of the question, and getting that bid started at Bristol would mean a lot for this team which has had its last two visits here ruined by wrecks.

"Bristol is exciting and it is fun, but it can be really tough, especially if you start in the back," said Martin's crew chief, Ben Leslie. "When you don't qualify well and you have to start in the back you have the leaders bearing down on you and there is also more of a chance to get wrecked.

"We've been involved in other people's accidents in our last two races at Bristol, so hopefully we'll replace the bad luck with some good luck this week and post a strong run to the front."

With his qualifying run on Friday, Martin ensured the team will at least start up front. And he also gave the team reason to believe its fortunes might be back on an upswing.

Drawing 39th, with the weather changing frequently and rain on its way, did not give Martin much hope for his spot on the starting grid. But even though it did end up raining and some drivers hit the track while it was hotter than when Martin got on, the conditions didn't make much of a difference to the team. It had anticipated the problem and accounted for it already.

"My car was just right for those conditions," Martin said. "It was real fast and (my run) was over with before I knew it. I didn't feel it was that good and I was hoping I'd be 15th or something like that, so I was pleasantly surprised."

Now he's looking for one more pleasant surprise: A strong run at a track he believes owes him a couple. Martin doesn't have a victory this season. But he's won at Bristol seven times in the past -- more than he's won at any other track on the circuit.

"I'm hoping that we can go in there and get off to a good start and hopefully have a strong run and start to turn this thing around," he said.

Rupen Fofaria is a freelance writer living in Chicago and a regular contributor to ESPN.com. He can be reached at rfofaria@espnspecial.com.