When team owner Rick Hendrick hired 50-year-old Mark Martin to run full-time this year, most everyone assumed it was to give the longtime NASCAR star an opportunity to finally win the Sprint Cup championship that has eluded him.

But the four-time series runner-up said the 2009 championship is not the real goal of his first full Cup season since 2006.

"[Winning the championship is] so far out of my mind right now," Martin said. "I want to win a race -- singular. When that gets accomplished, we'll start talking about multiples. And I want to contribute to this race team.

"Short term, I want to get [crew chief] Alan [Gustafson] and the (No.) 5 team's confidence up and get them performing on a level they're capable of. But, as a whole, I just want to make a contribution to Hendrick Motorsports."

The last of Martin's 35 Cup wins came in 2005 while driving for longtime boss Jack Roush.

A chance meeting with football great Mike Ditka -- and a few other sports superstars -- helped Jimmie Johnson put his three consecutive NASCAR championships into perspective.

"The day after the championship, Mike Ditka came up to me and said, 'I saw you yesterday on TV, and you are a dynasty.' I didn't know the man," Johnson said Thursday.

"Then I met Ken Griffey Jr. and Jerry Rice at the Super Bowl, and they congratulated me. People pay attention to that third championship. Anybody winning three championships in anything is pretty special."

All drivers passed the first round of NASCAR's newly implemented drug testing procedures, chairman Brian France said. Michael Waltrip jokingly said he "got a 98," as drivers seemed generally not bothered by the policy.

A year ago, David Stremme didn't have a Sprint Cup ride. Now, he's heading into the Daytona 500 in the car that won the 2008 race. Stremme, who hired on with Roger Penske's team as a test driver last year, is the driver of the No. 12 Dodge that Ryan Newman raced to victory at Daytona last February. Newman left Penske for the new Stewart Haas Racing, with Stremme moving up to the full-time ride.

Jeremy Mayfield will return to NASCAR Sprint Cup competition in 2009 as both team owner and driver. He will try to get the new team off on the right foot by qualifying for the Daytona 500.

Mayfield, who has not driven a full Cup season since 2005, co-owns the new team with Gary Smith, Chairman and CEO of Big Red, Inc. Smith's ALL SPORT brand will sponsor the team's No. 41 Toyota.