Notes: Martin fast in qualifying for Sunday

FONTANA, Calif. -- Mark Martin learned a lesson from the last time he was qualifying at California Speedway.

"I had a pretty good car here last fall and I overdrove the qualifying lap, slid all over the place and about killed myself and qualified 38th," Martin said. "I feel much better [Friday]. We were fifth-fastest in practice. So I felt like I had the margin that I needed to be able to try and not overdrive the car. I'm incredibly pleased with my lap."

Martin's lap of 185.500 mph was good enough for third, the fifth time he's started in the first three rows at California.

Last fall, Martin wound up 12th, continuing a streak of eight consecutive top-20 finishes.

Kahne comes close

Going out late in the session, Kasey Kahne thought he might have a chance to bump Jeff Gordon off the pole. He missed by less than .2 mph.

"The track's definitely faster now than when it was when the top six or seven went," Kahne said after his lap. "Jeff ran a great lap. In fact, all these guys did. We just missed it by a little bit."

Still, Kahne is confident about his ability to run up front in Sunday's Auto Club 500 (3 p.m. ET, FOX).

"We did some race runs [Friday]. The car felt decent," Kahne said. "We'll make more adjustments [Saturday] and hopefully get a good result on Sunday and gain some points."

Blowing in the wind

Greg Biffle qualified 13th as the top Ford but struggled with gusty conditions.

"The wind is blowing hard, you can see these flags blowing," Biffle said. "I was just not going to let [Turns] 1 and 2 beat me. I turned in early and didn't carry a lot of speed in there and gave up a lot of speed in there.

"I think if we look at the Lap Tracker, we were about the same or beat 'em in 3 and 4 -- just gave it all up in 1 and 2." (Continued)