Mark Martin grabs pole at Daytona

Mark Martin came across the line with a time of 47.074 seconds to beat out crowd favorite Dale Earnhardt Jr to grab the pole for the Daytona 500.

Martin had a speed of 191.188 to Earnhardt’s 190.913 to grab his first ever pole at Daytona.

The rest of the field will be determined by the Gatorade twin 125s on Thursday.

Team owner Rick Hendrick lavished praise on crew chiefs Alan Gustafson (Martin) and Lance McGrew (Earnhardt).

"The challenge was to run one team with two cars, and then to have those two cars down here that ran almost identical times ...," Hendrick said. "I know this is just one race, but no one here, and no one outside our company will know the effort Alan and Lance put into this team and these two cars, and I'm really proud of them."

"This is such a great accomplishment for the 5 and 88 teams," Martin said. "That was not an accomplishment of mine. It is one of all our guys on this team. To have Dale Jr. on the outside of the front row, locked in, just means that we are doing stuff right."

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"I'm real proud to be on the front row with my teammate, in Hendrick cars, and it's a testament to the engine shop and the fabricators," said Earnhardt, who took a positive step toward rebounding from a career-worst, 25th-place points finish in 2009. "Those guys really make the biggest difference at Daytona. We obviously have got great individuals piecing the cars themselves together and making sure they're going to do all things we need to do in qualifying."

Three other drivers where happy as could be on Saturday as Bill Elliott, Scott Speed and Joe Nemcheck all made the field based on them having the top three speeds of the go or go home guys. Bobby Labonte who was fourth fastest is in line to grab the Past Champion Provisional.

By Richard Gillispie
Pro Racing Fans Staff Writer

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