With Menard, Martin, DEI sweeps front row at DIS

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- On the day Mark Martin announced his impending departure for Hendrick Motorsports, Paul Menard led three Dale Earnhardt Inc. drivers, including Martin, to top-eight starting spots for Saturday's Coke Zero 400 at Daytona International Speedway.

• Video: Paul Menard wins pole

What made the session all the more remarkable was that Martin Truex Jr. wasn't one of them.

Menard, who has one top-10 finish in 56 Cup Series starts, clicked off a lap in 48.409 seconds (185.916 mph) to edge Martin (185.870 mph) for the pole, the first of his Cup career.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. (185.437 mph) qualified third in his No. 88 Hendrick machine (watch video) and got to share the stage with his former team and his new teammate during post-race interviews. Joe Nemechek (185.288 mph) and Johnny Sauter (185.250 mph) will start from the fourth and fifth positions for Saturday's race. David Ragan, Boris Said, DEI rookie Regan Smith, points leader Kyle Busch and Patrick Carpentier claimed the sixth through 10th starting spots.

Menard surprised himself with his pole-winning run because the No. 15 Chevy team had spent Thursday's only practice session in race trim.

"We didn't focus on qualifying at all, just drafting practice," Menard said. "So I honestly had no idea how we'd run in qualifying. It's the same car we had in Talladega, where we ran consistently in the top 10, so I thought it would probably qualify pretty well."

Martin, who will drive the No. 5 Chevy for Hendrick full time in 2009 (read more), said he was able to catch and pass other cars with ease during practice, priming him for an excellent run on Saturday (watch video).

"We're going to have some big fun [Saturday] night," Martin promised.

Well aware of the difficulty in fielding four teams in a sluggish economy, Earnhardt, who left his family founded team at the end of the 2007 season to drive for Hendrick, said he was gratified to see DEI succeed in his absence.

"They're doing a great job of stretching a buck," he said. "I can't say I'm really surprised [at their success], but it's great to see."

With 45 drivers trying to make the 43-car field, Scott Riggs and J.J. Yeley were the only two who failed to make the race. Yeley's failure came a week after a season-best, third-place finish in New Hampshire.

Said, meanwhile, may have gotten some redemption in making the field. Said was the provisional pole-sitter here during qualifying last July but missed the race when rain washed out part of time trials and the field was set based on points.

"I was so nervous about it," Said said after qualifying seventh (read more). "We've been snake-bit so much by weather with our small team. It's just the bad luck of Mother Nature."

Notes: In fairness to Truex, the driver of the No. 1 DEI Chevy qualified without an opportunity to practice his car, after NASCAR impounded his primary car on Thursday for failing to meet the roof templates during pre-qualifying inspection. Truex missed Thursday's first practice because of an engine change to the backup car, and rain washed out the second session (read more). Truex will start 35th. ... Menard's previous best start at Daytona was 21st in the 2008 Daytona 500, and his previous best start anywhere was 13th at Dover last month.

The Associated Press contributed to his report.