LONG POND, Pa. -- Mark Martin was tight-lipped about his prospects for Sunday's Sunoco Red Cross Pennsylvania 500 -- even before all of Saturday's practice was rained-out -- but five months before he's scheduled to join Hendrick Motorsports, he didn't have a problem predicting the organization's future.

Martin, who qualified his No. 8 Dale Earnhardt Inc. Chevrolet second next to future Hendrick teammate Jimmie Johnson's No. 48 Chevrolet on Friday, said he was looking forward to mentoring Brad Keselowski and Landon Cassill at Hendrick.

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I feel like the mix is perfect right now for me. ... I feel 100 percent rejuvenated.

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MARK MARTIN

But first, he wants to win a race for DEI and then take a shot at the 2009 Sprint Cup championship.

He thinks the former can happen Sunday, for a few reasons. First, he's been runner-up six times at Pocono. He qualified third and finished 10th in the Pocono 500 a month ago -- which caused a bold and uncharacteristic prediction of a victory in last weekend's Allstate 400 at the Brickyard.

Finally, he's got the same Impala SS he ran a month ago on the triangular 2.5-mile track, but slightly tuned-up, and that's what has him optimistic despite being faced with a basically green racetrack on Sunday.

"I feel real good," Martin said. "Tony Gibson [crew chief] and I talked about things after the race [in June], with our notes and what we'd like to try this time to make the car better.

"We need to make the car a little better, so we just went over those notes and incorporated those changes that we were going to try and we'll make adjustments. I would have to think we're way ahead of 50 percent of the field."

Much as was the case a week ago, Sunday at Pocono Martin said he'd only have to look sideways to catch the fields' biggest threat.

"We weren't good enough to beat [Johnson at Indy]," Martin said. "Now, there is a lot of ways to win these races. You can be the fastest car out there or you can be one of the group behind the fastest car and still win.

"For me to have won [at Indy] I would have had to have things really go my way because [Johnson] had the fastest car. Sixty percent or 65 percent of the time, the fastest car wins. The other 35-40 percent of the time, someone else is able to pull it off. But our car was clearly better than 11th [at Indy]."

Martin hopes to improve his Pocono 10th-place from June, on Sunday.

"We need to make it better than it was in race setup last time here," Martin said. "We improved the qualifying setup a little bit. So if we can find some things that will make the car stay strong longer into the run than it did last time, then we can be a contender.

"It is just really tough to beat [Johnson] right now. Like I said, we will do everything we can to have the fastest, best car and have all the best decisions and then we have to rely on what, fate, or whatever. We have to rely on some other things to line up for us."

One thing that's gotten better is Martin's affinity for his crew chief, with whom he's working full-time this season for the first time.

"In the beginning, Tony and I were just trying to get on the same page [and] we were missing it a little bit," Martin said. "But now when I tell him I need a little bit of this, or a little bit of that, he's got it down pat. Things are really going well -- so smooth. I really like Tony Gibson. He's a great leader of people and he makes this even more fun that it already is. It's a pleasure to work with him -- that's really special.

"Maybe this is our lucky Sunday. I would love to go to Victory Lane with these guys."

Despite his optimism, Martin said there would be no predictions.

Lineup

Sunoco Red Cross Pennsylvania 500

Pos.	Driver	Speed	Time
1.	J. Johnson	168.215	53.503
2.	M. Martin	167.560	53.712
3.	D. Gilliland	167.187	53.832
4.	J. Gordon	167.106	53.858
5.	M. Kenseth	166.883	53.930
6.	R. Newman	166.784	53.962
7.	K. Kahne	166.522	54.047
8.	B. Vickers	166.522	54.047
9.	G. Biffle	166.516	54.049
10.	Ku. Busch	166.445	54.072

• Lineup | Videos

"I'm really proud of this team," Martin said. "I'll be careful about what I say going forward. I have great respect for how hard this stuff is. I have educated most of [the media] for years about being overly optimistic and I really wanted Indy to work out. It didn't, but we gave it a great go."

Whatever Sunday's outcome, Martin continues to appreciate his career opportunities -- both to win races and also develop young talent.

But the fact is, whatever driver development he does will have to wait at least a year, because Martin is already building his focus toward a Sprint Cup championship-contending season in 2009 -- even as he zeroes in on a victory he felt escaped him last weekend in Indianapolis.

"I feel like the mix is perfect right now for me," Martin said. "Between wonderful equipment that DEI is putting me in, the team and Tony Gibson's attitude, the opportunity to be working so closely with [DEI development driver] Aric Almirola, the schedule for a year and a half that I have had, plenty of weekends off -- yes, I am 100 percent rejuvenated.

"I really know today how much racing means to me and I would answer a lot of questions differently today than I would have a year and a half ago or two years ago about this sport -- one of which would be, 'Why would I want to go to a race if I wasn't driving?'

"Well, if I couldn't drive, I would still want to be a part of a race team right now. I feel differently toward it than I did when I was so burned out from 19 years straight. I love it. This is where my friends are. This is where I belong."

Almirola, who ran his first ARCA race at Pocono and led twice for 10 laps before his car's transmission broke, will replace Martin as the full-time driver of the No. 8 next season, and Martin gave him high praise.

"Just an incredible talent and such a fine young man," Martin said. "Just to give you an example of what kind of commitment he's made, he has stood by and watched me run three-quarters of the races this year. He has been at almost every race, listened to every conversation, watching every bit of it and [he] was one of my two spotters at Indy.

"Don't forget that name and in 10 or 15 years from now [you'll know] he's earned it and I'm proud to be working with him."

Martin said that's why he's looking forward to performing in the same role for owner Rick Hendrick.

"My role at Hendrick Motorsports will include some mentoring, long-term [but] short-term, they want to run for a championship in '09," Martin said. "But long-term they want to mentor another young man, either Brad Keselowski or Landon Cassill. To be real honest with you, as good as Brad is I don't know what I could do to help there. But my role will be very similar [as with DEI]. It will have a one-year delay and then revert back to the same program that I did in '07 and '08.

"For me, as I've said before, it's an incredible honor to work with these young people, but especially incredible to be invited into Hendrick Motorsports at this stage of my career. It's still phenomenal. I still just can't believe it. There must be some mistake."

Not according to Hendrick.

"We've got a lot of options there," Hendrick said. "I've got two young guys in Brad Keselowski and Landon Cassill that are coming along real fast. One's 24 [Keselowski] and one's [soon to be] 19 [Cassill], and there are other options out there, too.

"We didn't think we'd end up [with Martin in the 5 car], so I'm not going to speculate too much what I'm going to do."