Mary Schwalm / AP

Mark Martin won the Sylvania 300 on Sunday for his series-best fifth Cup victory of the season.

It was a decent day for almost all the Chase drivers, who need a strong race in the 10-race title hunt to set the pace for the championship battle. Since its 2004 inception, only one driver, Johnson in 2006, finished lower than sixth at New Hampshire and still won the title.

That’s bad news for Kasey Kahne, who lost his motor early and finished 39th. He was posting to his Twitter account about his crummy day from his airplane as he prepared to head home before the halfway point of the race.

After just one race, Kahne is last in the 12-driver field and 161 points behind Martin, the leader.

Considered the best driver in NASCAR without a championship, the 50-year-old is poised to finally grab one.

Martin, who announced a contract extension Friday that keeps him with Hendrick Motorsports through 2011, started the Chase as the points leader because of his four “regular season” victories. Now he’s got another win and a 35-point cushion over the competition.

Although he’s consistently said that Montoya, the former Formula One driver, is the dark horse of this championship hunt, Montoya believes Martin is the man to beat.

“I think he’s the most dangerous guy,” Montoya said. “He’s the guy with the most experience. He hasn’t won a championship, and he wants one, pretty bad.”