Yes, I checked everything you mentioned in your reply. It is the chainring itself that is bent. If I had crashed the bike or hit the chainring on something I would know it but this ring has only been on 4 rides and it has misbehaved the same all along.

My bike is an old Trek 990 which came with a 7 speed cassette. Since I made it into a 9 speed I've always gone through drive trains fast and the shifting, especially shifting up to larger chainrings from small and middle chainrings has been rough. I'm not sure whether the geometry for the 9 speed cassette is the same since the gears are narrower, but the chain line never looks right. Do others have experience with this. Thanks for all the helpful advice.