I'm Matt Willis, and here's what I'm burning on.

Maybe it doesn't work as well for me as it does for Jim Rome, but if I say it in the Jim Rome voice and stretch out my three-syllable words, I think we're on to something.

It will be IN-cred-i-ble. PHE-no-menal. Joe NEM-e-chek.

Anyways, one thing that bugged me this weekend came at the end of the Nationwide Series race. I always cheer for the Nationwide-only drivers, and it looked like Jason Leffler was chasing down Greg Biffle when a caution came out for John Wes Townley's incident.

Nobody likes cautions, but they especially bother me when they come out because of debris/accidents caused by cars many laps down.

Even worse is when an entire race is decided by a car well off the pace that hangs around to complete extra laps. Remember the 1999 Daytona 500? Rusty Wallace and Jeff Gordon were side-by-side for the lead, but Wallace had to lift to avoid running into the damaged car of Ricky Rudd.

You can't blame the cars for wanting to get out there for additional points and prize money; the duty rests with NASCAR to fix it.

A simple change to the points and payout systems would do it. Simply award every car that finishes 30th or worse the same amount of points and prize money. Those cars stay off the track, as do their debris and oil, both of which can be an enormous safety concern.

That's it for my ranting. Let's get to the best research notes from the weekend's Cup race.

Nifty at 50

What a win for Mark Martin at Phoenix. After winning his third pole in five races, Martin dominated early and came back strong late, and now looks like a serious championship contender.

Martin became just the fourth 50-year-old winner in NASCAR Cup Series history, joining Harry Gant in 1992 at Michigan (52), Morgan Shepherd in 1993 at Atlanta (51) and Bobby Allison's 1988 Daytona win at the age of 50. If Martin wins again, he'd join Gant as the only multi-winners over the age of 50.

Looking WAY down the road: If Martin wins the title in this, his 24th season, it would be by far the most seasons run before a first championship.

Bobby Allison won his first in his 18th full season. Dale Jarrett won it in his 13th full season and Darrell Waltrip did it in his ninth.

Trivia break! Mark Martin is also the oldest race winner at Phoenix. Whose record did he break?

A perfect 10

Mark Martin not only won, but he also picked up his 400th career top-10 finish, and did it in style. He's just the fourth driver in NASCAR Cup Series history to pick up 400 top-10 finishes, but he's the only one to do it without winning a title.

The most career top-10s in Cup history:

Driver -- Top 10s -- Titles
Richard Petty -- 712 -- 7
Bobby Allison -- 446 -- 1
Dale Earnhardt -- 428 -- 7
Mark Martin -- 400 -- 0*
*Finished second in points four times

Trivia break! Who ranks fifth all-time, with 390 top-10 finishes?

It's not how you start

Clint Bowyer has now had back-to-back below-average finishes, coming home 22nd at Texas and 26th at Phoenix, dropping him to sixth in points.

He is, however, bringing his car home in one piece, a big part of why he's working on making his third straight Chase appearance.

Phoenix was the 81st consecutive race that Bowyer finished, tying his teammate, Kevin Harvick, for the longest streak in Cup Series history. Harvick's streak was snapped earlier this season at California.

The next-longest streak belongs to Harvick as well, a 58-race run from 2002 to '04. And to top it off, Dale Earnhardt had a 53-race streak from 1996 to '98, the fifth-longest streak of all time.

That gives Childress four of the five longest streaks of consecutive races without a DNF in Cup Series history.

Trivia break! Who holds the record for most consecutive starts (not races) without a DNF (did not finish)?

Trivia Break answers

1. Rusty Wallace previously held the record for oldest Phoenix winner -- he was 44 when he won there in 1998.

2. Darrell Waltrip is fifth with 390 career top-10 finishes.

3. The immortal Herman Beam, aka "The Turtle," did not have a DNF in 84 consecutive starts, but he did not run every Cup Series race in that span.

Matt Willis is a studio researcher at ESPN. He can be reached at ESPNMattWillis@yahoo.com.