But one thing he doesn't want to change is what happened each of the last two Septembers at Dover Downs International Speedway. Now, if he can put everything together, Sunday's MBNA Gold 400 could be a late-season turning point in his uphill battle for the Winston Cup championship.

"JR-52 has always been a good car for us," Martin said of the Roush Racing Ford he brought to The Monster Mile. "Last fall at Dover we sat on the pole and dominated the race."

Dominated is barely strong enough to describe the fashion in which Martin manhandled the field. He set a track record by leading 380 of 400 laps.

"Nobody could touch us here last year, and it's been a while since we've been able to do that," said Martin, third in the standings, 272 points behind leader Dale Jarrett with eight races remaining. "This car won a lot of races for us last year, and hopefully we can add a few more this year."

Martin has raced JR-52 only twice this season -- finishing third in March in Hampton, Ga., and second a month later in Bristol, Tenn.

The car made its debut in 1998 at The Winston, the NASCAR all-star event, and Martin won with it.

"We may not have as many wins as we had last year, but it is certainly not from a lack of effort," Martin said. "The guys are working just as hard as they ever have, but there are a lot of really strong teams this year that are hard to beat."

Indeed, the lineup includes Jarrett, three-time Dover winner Jeff Gordon and Bobby Labonte, who won the MBNA Platinum 400 at Dover in June. Labonte is second in the standings, 254 points behind Jarrett.

Martin wants a pole so he can take his usual spot in the lucrative Bud Shootout, the annual non-points preseason events for pole winners from the previous year. On raceday, the seven-time 1998 winner hasn't prevailed since the second week of the season, in Rockingham, N.C.

Martin also figures to have trouble with Roush Racing teammate Jeff Burton, whose five victories match Gordon's total as the pacesetting number on the circuit this year.

Gordon won three races in a row at Dover in 1995-96 and is a two-time polesitter at the track. But he has failed to win twice in the last two seasons at Dover despite great performances.

In June of 1998, he led 275 of 300 laps, but pitted inside the final 10 and lost to Jarrett's economy run. He had the lead three months ago, but was forced to take gas near the end as Labonte went the distance on his fuel to win.

That sort of thing, and a series-worst six failures to finish, have made many forget that this still has been a productive season for Gordon. He hopes to extend his record of leading the circuit in victories to five years in a row.

"We've had a good season," Gordon said. "Any year that you win the Daytona 500 is a good year. But we also have four other wins, seven poles and we've led a lot of laps."

But Stewart, the first rookie to win in 12 years, poses perhaps the biggest threat to Martin's hopes. After winning two weeks ago in Richmond, Va., he finished second with an ailing engine when Joe Nemechek got his breakthrough victory last Sunday in Loudon, N.H.

Although it took him 25 races to win for the first time -- with a few "should'ves" along the way -- no driver has been as persistent as Stewart. He has completed all but 371 of 4,713 laps this year while rolling to fourth place in the standings.

"We led the most laps in June and had a serious shot at a win if we hadn't had to pit for fuel," he said of his fourth-place finish in the MBNA Platinum 400. "Since then, this first-year team has matured so much that I believe we realistically have a shot at another top-five finish this weekend."

His laps-completed number is the best in the series, and no one has scored as many points during the second half of the season.

"What a great two-week period," Stewart said. "It's unbelievable as a rookie team that we've had the opportunity to run this well."