Martin, Stewart not so excited about points race

<br>DOVER, Del. (AP) _ Mark Martin and Tony Stewart have been far too inconsistent to get all that excited about the Winston Cup title chase. <br><br>Perhaps neither would be a strong contender had four-time

Friday, September 20th 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

DOVER, Del. (AP) _ Mark Martin and Tony Stewart have been far too inconsistent to get all that excited about the Winston Cup title chase.

Perhaps neither would be a strong contender had four-time series champion Jeff Gordon put together one of his long dominating runs. Instead, all enter Sunday's event at Dover International Speedway as part of the best title race in NASCAR history.

Throw in Sterling Marlin and rookie Jimmie Johnson, and the spread from leader Martin to fifth-pace Gordon is a mere 67 points with a quarter of the season to go.

Martin holds a six-point lead over Marlin, achieved with a 16th-place finish last Sunday in New Hampshire.

``We really can't get all carried away,'' Martin said. ``What this does mean is that we scored the most points. It doesn't mean that we have won anything.''

His lead, built largely on 16 top-10 finishes, is proof that no one is doing much dominating. Gone, at least for the time being, are the days of Gordon winning 10 times and sprinting out to leads of 250-300 points.

Stewart is fourth, eight points ahead of Gordon.