Homestead, Fla. ? Mark Martin’s appeal of a 25-point penalty was rejected Saturday, making his bid to overtake Tony Stewart for the Winston Cup championship that much tougher.

Martin was docked the points for using an unapproved spring on his Ford in the Nov. 3 race at Rockingham, N.C. His Roush team argued that the infraction was not intentional and that the penalty was too severe.

Now Martin will go into the season-closing Ford 400 today 89 points behind leader Stewart. Stewart will win the championship if he finishes 22nd or better today, no matter what Martin does in the race.

Saturday’s decision by a three-person panel from the National Stock Car Racing Commission also denied appeals of team owner Jack Roush’s 25 car-owner points penalty and crew chief Ben Leslie’s $5,000 fine.

The commission issued a statement: “The spring rule as written is clear. The spring from the No. 6 car did not meet the requirements of the rule. NASCAR acted fairly and consistently in issuing the penalties.”

NASCAR spokesman Jim Hunter said, “The issue here is the spring must have 41¼2 coils and the one in question didn’t.”