Mark Martin and Kyle Busch have a leg up toward earning a potential top seeding at the outset of the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup.

Now, all they have to do is make the Chase.

Strange but true: Because of the increasingly demanding competition in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, the guys with the most race victories thus far this year are in danger of not qualifying for NASCAR’s “playoffs.”

The 12 drivers qualifying for the Chase will have their season point totals “reset” to 5,000. They then will get 10 bonus points for each race victory during the “regular season” — meaning the 26 races preceding the Chase. Those adjusted totals will determine the seedings to start the Chase.

Both Martin and Busch have four victories this season, which would give them 5,040 points. To determine seeding order for the Chase, ties are broken by the traditional NASCAR method — looking at a driver’s race results beyond victories.

That means as of now, Martin has an edge on Busch, with two runner-up finishes compared to Busch’s none.

Of course, all of that will be moot if they don’t make the Chase. The fact that they are even in this sort of predicament underscores the cold hard facts of competitive life in NASCAR’s top series these days.

No longer is it enough to only run consistently.

And, no longer is it enough to have only a few great days along with some poor ones.

Nowadays, you need to both challenge for race wins and do so consistently.

Martin, although he has those four victories, also has three DNFs — virtual negation in terms of points, of his trips to Victory Lane.

Busch’s four wins are nice, but on the other side he has only eight top 10s overall and two DNFs. Compare that to series points leader Tony Stewart’s series-high 18 top 10s and the 17 top 10s by current points runner-up Jeff Gordon.