Catchfence

It will be a Hendrick Motorsports front row for the February 14th Daytona 500, as Mark Martin is on the pole with a speed of 191.188 mph, and Dale Earnhardt, Jr. (190.913mph) will sit on the outside. The starting positions for the rest of the field will be determined on Thursday during the Gatorade Duel 150′s.

This is Martin’s 1st NSCS pole for the Daytona 500, his 2nd NSCS pole at Daytona International Speedway, and his 49th NSCS pole of his career.

“This is just a great accomplishment for this GoDaddy.com team, Alan Gustafson and all of the guys,” stated Mark Martin after winning his first Daytona 500 pole. ” 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.”

Outside pole sitter, Dale Earnhardt, Jr., will be making his second Daytona 500 front row appearance (his last was
2003).

“I would have like to have had the pole, but at least we got two Hendrick cars on the front row,”  said Earnhardt, Jr., after he secured the outside pole. “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.”

Rounding out the top-10 qualifiers were Ryan Newman with a speed of 190.577 mph, who was third fastest, Bill Elliott (190.573) fourth, Juan Pablo Montoya (190.408) fifth, Jimmie Johnson (190.359) sixth, Kurt Busch (190.359) seventh, Clint Bowyer (190.118) eighth, Kyle Busch (190.054) ninth and Jeff Gordon (190.050) tenth.

Qualifying Notes:  Daytona 500 Qualifying Day

•      The two fastest qualifiers are “locked into” the front row for the Daytona 500. Those are the driver ’s only guaranteed positions coming out of qualifying day.
•       The Gatorade Duel at Daytona, two 150-mile qualifying races, determine starting positions for the Daytona 500 beyond the front row. In the event of cancellation, the field will be set according to the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Rule Book.

2010 NSCS Daytona 500 Qualifying Results

Pos	Car	Driver	Team	Time	Speed	-Fastest	-Next
1	5	Mark Martin	GoDaddy.com Chevrolet	47.074	191.188	0	0
2	88	Dale Earnhardt Jr.	AMP Energy / National Guard Chevrolet	47.142	190.913	0.068	0.068
3	39	Ryan Newman	US Army Chevrolet	47.225	190.577	0.151	0.083
4	*21	Bill Elliott	Motorcraft / Quick Lane Tire & Auto Center Ford	47.226	190.573	0.152	0.001
5	42	Juan Pablo Montoya	Target Chevrolet	47.267	190.408	0.193	0.041
6	48	Jimmie Johnson	Lowe's Chevrolet	47.279	190.359	0.205	0.012
7	2	Kurt Busch	Miller Lite Dodge	47.279	190.359	0.205	0
8	33	Clint Bowyer	Cheerios / Hamburger Helper Chevrolet	47.339	190.118	0.265	0.06
9	18	Kyle Busch	M&M's Toyota	47.355	190.054	0.281	0.016
10	24	Jeff Gordon	Dupont Chevrolet	47.356	190.05	0.282	0.001
11	17	Matt Kenseth	Crown Royal Ford	47.356	190.05	0.282	0
12	77	Sam Hornish Jr.	Mobil 1 Dodge	47.356	190.05	0.282	0
13	*82	Scott Speed	Red Bull Toyota	47.379	189.958	0.305	0.023
14	47	Marcos Ambrose	Kroger Floral Toyota	47.429	189.757	0.355	0.05
15	12	Brad Keselowski	Penske Dodge	47.434	189.737	0.36	0.005
16	*87	Joe Nemechek	NEMCO Motorsports Toyota	47.441	189.709	0.367	0.007
17	20	Joey Logano	Home Depot Toyota	47.445	189.693	0.371	0.004
18	*71	Bobby Labonte	TaxSlayer.com Chevrolet	47.452	189.665	0.378	0.007
19	1	Jamie McMurray	Bass Pro Shops / Tracker Boats Chevrolet	47.47	189.593	0.396	0.018
20	*51	Michael Waltrip	NAPA Auto Parts Toyota	47.505	189.454	0.431	0.035
21	14	Tony Stewart	Office Depot/Old Spice Chevrolet	47.525	189.374	0.451	0.02
22	0	David Reutimann	Aaron's Dream Machine Toyota	47.54	189.314	0.466	0.015
23	98	Paul Menard	Peak / Menards Ford	47.545	189.294	0.471	0.005
24	6	David Ragan	UPS Ford	47.548	189.282	0.474	0.003
25	43	A J Allmendinger	Best Buy Ford	47.555	189.255	0.481	0.007
26	99	Carl Edwards	Aflac Ford	47.57	189.195	0.496	0.015
27	11	Denny Hamlin	FedEx Express Toyota	47.601	189.072	0.527	0.031
28	9	Kasey Kahne	Budweiser Ford	47.605	189.056	0.531	0.004
29	*36	Mike Bliss	Wave Energy Drink Chevrolet	47.606	189.052	0.532	0.001
30	29	Kevin Harvick	Shell / Pennzoil Chevrolet	47.62	188.996	0.546	0.014
31	31	Jeff Burton	Caterpillar Chevrolet	47.653	188.865	0.579	0.033
32	7	Robby Gordon	Monster Energy Toyota	47.686	188.735	0.612	0.033
33	56	Martin Truex Jr.	NAPA Auto Parts Toyota	47.688	188.727	0.614	0.002
34	78	Regan Smith	Furniture Row Racing Chevrolet	47.695	188.699	0.621	0.007
35	83	Brian Vickers	Red Bull Toyota	47.713	188.628	0.639	0.018
36	19	Elliott Sadler	Stanley Ford	47.737	188.533	0.663	0.024
37	16	Greg Biffle	3M Ford	47.768	188.411	0.694	0.031
38	*32	Reed Sorenson	Dollar General Toyota	47.773	188.391	0.699	0.005
39	*90	Casey Mears	Keyed-Up Motorsports Chevrolet	47.796	188.3	0.722	0.023
40	*13	Max Papis	GEICO Toyota	47.822	188.198	0.748	0.026
41	*49	David Gilliland	Warner Music / Larry the Cable Guy Toyota	47.932	187.766	0.858	0.11
42	34	John Andretti	Window World Cares Ford	47.997	187.512	0.923	0.065
43	*97	Jeff Fuller	NEMCO Motorsports Toyota	48.035	187.363	0.961	0.038
44	38	Robert Richardson	Mahindra USA Tractors Ford	48.054	187.289	0.98	0.019
45	37	Travis Kvapil	Extenze Ford	48.055	187.285	0.981	0.001
46	*09	Aric Almirola	Phoenix Racing Chevrolet	48.057	187.278	0.983	0.002
47	*46	Terry Cook #	Whitney Motorsports Dodge	48.114	187.056	1.04	0.057
48	26	Boris Said	Window World Cares Ford	48.152	186.908	1.078	0.038
49	*66	Dave Blaney	PRISM Motorsports Toyota	48.321	186.254	1.247	0.169
50	*55	Michael McDowell	PRISM Motorsports Toyota	48.407	185.924	1.333	0.086
51	*75	Derrike Cope	Asset Protect / Strutmasterspro.com Dodge	48.638	185.041	1.564	0.231
52	*27	Kirk Shelmerdine	Kirk Shelmerdine Racing Toyota	48.805	184.407	1.731	0.167
53	*92	Mike Wallace	K Automotive Dodge	49.267	182.678	2.193	0.462
54	*57	Norm Benning	Norm Benning Racing Chevrolet	49.832	180.607	2.758	0.565

* Required to Qualify on Time
# Denotes Rookie