Martin, Earnhardt Jr. take Daytona 500 front row

Sam Greenwood/Getty Images for NASCAR

By Kyle Ocker
Sprint Cup Series beat reporter

The Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolets are at it again.  This time, it was in the form of a front row sweep by Mark Martin and Dale Earnhardt Jr. in pole qualifying for the Daytona 500 to be run Sunday, Feb. 14.  Both Martin and Earnhardt Jr. set a pace that was untouchable for most of the qualifying session on Saturday afternoon after they were second and first, respectively, in yesterday’s practice session.

“I love getting records. After the ones of the youngest to do that, I’m still after it. Can’t get the youngest anymore.”
— Mark Martin

With the rules for Daytona 500, the front row qualifiers are locked into their position and will each take the pole for one of the two Gatorade Duel 150-mile races to be run next Thursday.  Martin will lead the field to green in the first Gatorade Duel race with Earnhardt Jr. starting in the pole position in the second duel race.

“This is just a great accomplishment for this GoDaddy.com team, Alan Gustafson and all of the guys,” Martin said.  “I want to thank Bob Parsons for stepping up to the plate here. It is pretty exciting to have them on board. It is all about the team. That was not accomplishment of mine, it is one of all of 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.”

On the other hand, Earnhardt Jr.’s second fastest time in today’s qualifying session signals for a bit of hope for the JR Nation hopeful.

“I would have like to have had the pole, but at least we got two Hendrick cars on the front row,” Earnhardt Jr said. “I just have got to thank the engine shop for the power and all the guys in the body shop for making that thing as slick as it was and our guys for putting it together and doing all the things they did to make that thing go fast like it did. It is a tribute to a great organization. The driver really doesn’t have nothing to do with it at that time, it is just all race car right there.  We just want to be able to do good things for AMP Energy and the National Guard. This is a start and hopefully we can keep the ball rolling the next several days and have a good Speed Weeks. Then we will get to Fontana and Vegas and all those places and see what happens there.”

Stewart-Haas Racing, which runs chassis and engines made by Hendrick Motorsports, also caught a glimpse of the top-five qualifiers, in the form of Ryan Newman’s third fastest qualifying lap.  He joined Bill Elliott, who was both the fastest Ford and go-or-go-homer in the qualifying session, and Juan Pablo Montoya to round out the top-five qualifiers.

“That was a great run,” Elliott said.  “You never can tell about circumstances – when you go, what happens, how the wind blows for this guy or that guy, but the Hendrick guys are hard to beat.  Week in and week out, they’re the most stable team in the garage as far as what they need to do and what they’re trying to do.  We worked all winter to come down here for today and now we need to work on once we leave here today, work on what we need to do for Wednesday to be as good as we can on Thursday, and, hopefully, everything works out and we’ll be in the 500.”

Jimmie Johnson and Kurt Busch tied in their qualifying laps and will start sixth and seventh, respectively, as Johnson wins the tie-breaker because of his higher owner points ranking.  Clint Bowyer, Kyle Busch and Jeff Gordon, who was the worst qualifying Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, rounded out the top-ten qualifiers.

Three go-or-go-homers already locked themselves into the race by being in the top-three fastest among drivers no in the top-35.  Those drivers were Elliott, Scott Speed and Joe Nemechek.  However, there is still room for four drivers in the Daytona 500, all of which won’t know their fate until Thursday’s twin duels.

Drivers inside the top-35, besides the top-two qualifiers from today’s session, will be assigned based on their car owner’s points position from 2009.  Owners who are in an odd-numbered position are assigned to the first duel with even-numbered positions going to the second duel.  For the drivers outside of the top-35, their duel-assignment is based on qualifying times.  These drivers will alternate with the fastest driver going to the first duel and second-fastest going to the second duel.  The final starting position for each duel race will be determined on qualifying times from today.

Positions three through 43^rd will be set based on finishing positions in the duel race.

Notes: All four manufacturers were represented in the top-five qualifying positions. … The pole run for Martin is one position better than his second place qualifying effort in last year’s Daytona 500. … Martin became the oldest pole winner for the Daytona 500.  Previously Bobby Labonte was the oldest at 48 years old.

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