DARLINGTON, S.C. -- Mark Martin had one earnest request to the media on Friday. "I would appreciate it if you wouldn't write that I'm coming back for one more shot at the championship," Martin said at Darlington Raceway, in his first news conference since re-upping for another full season with Hendrick Motorsports next year. Martin, 50, known in the NASCAR garages as "the best driver never to win the championship," is a four-time runner-up for the Cup, and has finished in the hunt eight times in his career. But he has stopped fretting about that, and would like for the talk to stop. "I do this because I love racing with all my heart," he said. It took a partial season in 2007 for him to get his priorities in order, he added. He had to break some of his obsession with championships. "Just for example, in 1999, on Friday night before the 400 on Saturday at Daytona in July, I broke my wrist, my ribs and my knee [in a practice crash]," he said. "I did that because I wanted to win a championship." Later, "I raced for a year and a half with excruciating back pain," he said. "I never missed a practice session, I never missed a test session, I never missed anything. Because I wanted to win a championship. "I was allowing that points thing to affect how I felt about racing. I focused on that more than I really realized how much I love it." Then, "When I finally stepped out of the car and ran 26 [of 36] races in '07, I started gradually realizing how much I love to race. And I'm going to keep it that way. ... I'm not going to try to will more points than we can score at the finish line each week." The fun of it all set in his mind, and Martin said his conversation with team owner Rick Hendrick about another full season was very brief and to the point. "After Phoenix [where he won on April 18] was the first conversation I had, and that lasted -- five minutes would be a stretch. The conversation with Rick was probably less than five minutes, probably more like 60 seconds. "He said that's what he wanted to do, and I said that's what I wanted to do. "So here we are." Just for the fun of it, mind you.