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Martin claims Atlanta Cup pole

Mark Martin claimed his first pole position for nearly eight years in qualifying for Sunday's Kobalt Tools 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway

The 50-year-old had already been fastest in practice but ran even faster in qualifying, setting a lap of 29.640 seconds at an average speed of 187.045mph, getting a pole for the first time since Richmond in 2001 - 256 races ago.

"I feel like a rookie," Martin joked after claiming his 42nd career pole. "I feel shaking from the lap and I was nervous and sick of my stomach about the whole thing. It's pretty cool for us to pull this one off. We need to go win us a race but this will give us a good starting spot."

Martin joined Harry Gant as the only other driver to win a pole position in the Sprint Cup series at over 50 years of age. Gant had three poles after turning 50, the last coming at Bristol when he was 54.

Lining up beside Martin on the front row will be Kurt Busch, who continued to run as the best from the Dodge camp, while Jamie McMurray was third, putting three different manufacturers in the top three.

McMurray was one of many who had trouble getting the right feel with Goodyear's tyre selection for the weekend.

"That's a really good lap," he said. "I don't know if it's the tyre that Goodyear has brought here, but when we unloaded in practice I thought that we were two or three seconds off the pace and it ended up we were like fifth-quick for most of practice. The cars just drive really odd."

Juan Pablo Montoya matched his best qualifying of the year with fourth and was by far the best from the Earnhardt Ganassi camp. His starting spot on Sunday will be his best since November 2007 at Texas when he started from third place.

"The car had the pace to be on pole, but coming out of four I started putting on the power and the front started washing out," Montoya said. "I was half throttle when everybody has been wide open and that didn't help. But it is great to see the progress that everybody at Earnhardt Ganassi has done over the weekend."

Greg Biffle was fifth fastest while Denny Hamlin was the fastest Toyota in sixth place ahead of three-time winner at Atlanta Jimmie Johnson, and Joe Nemechek, who despite having probably the smallest team in the garage, was still the fastest non-guaranteed driver in eighth.

"We have a total of five people," said Nemechek. "We're just doing what we can afford to do right now - thankful for getting a race car. We bought some race cars from Red Bull. They're last year's cars. Triad Racing Development is doing the engines, they're making good power. The guys I have on this team have experience.

"I'm telling you, we have a great package. We just need a little bit of money to make this team go."

Last year's winner Kyle Busch was ninth fastest, while Kevin Harvick rounded out the top 10. Behind him, the two Stewart Haas Racing cars of Tony Stewart and Ryan Newman will line up on the sixth row of the grid for Sunday's race.

Carl Edwards, the most recent winner at the track only qualified 29th, while rookie Joey Logano struggled for speed all day and was 42nd fastest out of the 43 cars that made the field, leaving four drivers out of the grid.

Pos  Driver             Car        Speed    Time
 1.  Mark Martin        Chevrolet  187.045  29.640
 2.  Kurt Busch         Dodge      186.365  29.748  + 0.108
 3.  Jamie McMurray     Ford       186.309  29.757  + 0.117
 4.  Juan Montoya       Chevrolet  186.209  29.773  + 0.133
 5.  Greg Biffle        Ford       186.184  29.777  + 0.137
 6.  Denny Hamlin       Toyota     186.165  29.780  + 0.140
 7.  Jimmie Johnson     Chevrolet  186.053  29.798  + 0.158
 8.  Joe Nemechek       Toyota     185.922  29.819  + 0.179
 9.  Kyle Busch         Toyota     185.891  29.824  + 0.184
10.  Kevin Harvick      Chevrolet  185.834  29.833  + 0.193
11.  Tony Stewart       Chevrolet  185.741  29.848  + 0.208
12.  Ryan Newman        Chevrolet  185.579  29.874  + 0.234
13.  Kasey Kahne        Dodge      185.430  29.898  + 0.258
14.  Elliott Sadler     Dodge      185.337  29.913  + 0.273
15.  Jeff Burton        Chevrolet  185.282  29.922  + 0.282
16.  Jeff Gordon        Chevrolet  185.269  29.924  + 0.284
17.  Brian Vickers      Toyota     184.948  29.976  + 0.336
18.  David Reutimann    Toyota     184.868  29.989  + 0.349
19.  Robby Gordon       Toyota     184.658  30.023  + 0.383
20.  Dale Earnhardt Jr  Chevrolet  184.499  30.049  + 0.409
21.  Clint Bowyer       Chevrolet  184.499  30.049  + 0.409
22.  Travis Kvapil      Ford       184.260  30.088  + 0.448
23.  Martin Truex Jr    Chevrolet  184.107  30.113  + 0.473
24.  Michael Waltrip    Toyota     184.009  30.129  + 0.489
25.  Casey Mears        Chevrolet  184.003  30.130  + 0.490
26.  Scott Speed        Toyota     183.978  30.134  + 0.494
27.  Dave Blaney        Toyota     183.948  30.139  + 0.499
28.  David Stremme      Dodge      183.923  30.143  + 0.503
29.  Carl Edwards       Ford       183.881  30.150  + 0.510
30.  Matt Kenseth       Ford       183.795  30.164  + 0.524
31.  David Gilliland    Chevrolet  183.765  30.169  + 0.529
32.  Reed Sorenson      Dodge      183.753  30.171  + 0.531
33.  Paul Menard        Ford       183.285  30.248  + 0.608
34.  Marcos Ambrose     Toyota     183.273  30.250  + 0.610
35.  Bill Elliott       Ford       183.267  30.251  + 0.611
36.  Sam Hornish Jr     Dodge      183.248  30.254  + 0.614
37.  Aric Almirola      Chevrolet  182.934  30.306  + 0.666
38.  A.J. Allmendinger  Dodge      182.922  30.308  + 0.668
39.  David Ragan        Ford       182.856  30.319  + 0.679
40.  Bobby Labonte      Ford       182.783  30.331  + 0.691
41.  John Andretti      Chevrolet  182.621  30.358  + 0.718
42.  Joey Logano        Toyota     181.938  30.472  + 0.832
43.  Mike Bliss         Chevrolet  182.645  30.354  + 0.714

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