Martin, Earnhardt Jr. Compose Front Row of Daytona 500

Martin, Earnhardt Jr. Compose Front Row of Daytona 500

Mark Martin earned his first Daytona 500 pole on Saturday after being the only driver to eclipse the 191 mph mark. Dale Earnhardt, Jr. will start second.

Both drivers belong to Hendricks Motorsports and due to their individual situations their accomplishments have additional significance.

For Martin, his pole victory is a testament to his endurance, resiliency, and fitness. In January, Martin turned 51-years-old. Despite defying Father Time, Martin remains humble about achieving the top starting position for Super Bowl of Racing.

Mark Martin (right) and Dale Earnhardt, Jr. (left) celebrate their respective 1st and second place starting positions for the Daytona 500.

“It’s such an incredible accomplishment for the 5 and 88 team,” Martin said. “It’s all about the team. That was not an accomplishment of mine. … To have Dale Jr. on the outside of the front row, locked in, just means we’re doing something right.”

Meanwhile Earnhardt, who is coming off the worst year of his NASCAR tenure, is starting the 2010 campaign on the right foot (or should we say wheel).

“It takes a little bit of the pressure off and relieves a little bit of the stress,” Earnhardt told reporters.

Turning Earnhardt’s team around was the number one priority for Hendricks Motorsports this past off season. NASCAR’s most popular driver went winless in 2009 and posted just five top-10 finishes.

“This is a start, and hopefully we can keep the ball rolling over the next several days and have a good Speedweeks,” Earnhardt said.

Martin and Earnhardt are the only drivers who have their starting positions secured. The 32 other drivers that are locked into the Great American Race, based on their finish from last season, will earn their starting positions Thursday during a pair of 150-mile qualifying races.

Those races will also qualify eight more drivers bringing the field to 43.

In other racing news, Danica Patrick capped her stock car debut with a sixt-place finish. She rallied from a midrace spinout to snatch the top ten.

“It was a lot of fun,” noted Patrick. “I bumped from the side. I bumped from the front. I got bumped from the back. I learned a lot, and I had so much fun in a race car today. So I can’t wait to do it again.”

If you remove the second to the last sentence from her quote it sounds like a very interesting date.

By the way, Bobby Gerhart won the race. It was his sixth ARCA victory at Daytona International Speedway.

Tags: Dale Earnhardt, Danica Patrick, Daytona 500, Daytona 500 pole position, Daytona International Speedway, Jr., Mark Martin, NASCAR, Speedweek

This entry was posted on Saturday, February 6th, 2010 at 9:39 pm and is filed under MISC. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.