Martin matches career-best with sixth pole of season

RICHMOND, Va. -- If Mark Martin is to lock himself into the Chase for the Sprint Cup, he's in the best position to do so -- with the rest of the field in his rearview mirror.

With a lap at 126.808 mph (21.292 seconds), Martin claimed his sixth -- and probably most important -- pole of the season Friday at Richmond International Raceway. Currently 10th in the Cup standings, with a 69-point lead over 13th place Brian Vickers, Martin will lead the field to the green flag in Saturday's Chevy Rock & Roll 400.

Martin matched his career-best season for poles, set 20 years ago in 1989, and it was his fourth on the .75-mile oval. It also was the 47th pole position of his career.

Martin edged Martin Truex Jr. (126.731 mph) for the top spot. Denny Hamlin (126.630 mph) qualified third, followed by Jimmie Johnson (126.541 mph) and Kasey Kahne (126.452 mph). Vickers, Jeff Gordon, Kyle Busch (14th in points and 37 behind 12th place Matt Kenseth), Brad Keselowski and Carl Edwards will start from the sixth through 10th spots, respectively.

"This is awesome," said Martin, who earned a head start on securing one of the 12 Chase positions. "The car's great in race trim, too. We had a pretty good car in Atlanta [last week], and I went out and qualified, and I felt a lot of pressure to not mess up. So when qualifying was over, I felt I had been a tad conservative.

"[Friday night], when I went out to qualify, I had the confidence in the car from practice, and I knew what was riding on it, and I felt like it was worth the risk to go out there and try to get it all. ... I'll rest easy until [Saturday] night. It was a little better than I expected."

While bubble drivers Martin, Kahne, Vickers, Kyle Busch and Juan Montoya (14th) positioned themselves advantageously with respect to the Chase, Greg Biffle (11th in points, 68 ahead of Vickers) and Kenseth (12th and 20 points to the good) have work to do. The Roush Fenway teammates qualified 24th and 28th, respectively.

"We're going to be in the back, so it's going to take us a while," Biffle said after his qualifying run. "We were just way too tight, and I don't know why, because it was a little bit loose in practice qualifying. Normally, it's loose here, or it tends to loosen up, but it was just too tight."

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The Associted Press contributed to this report.