Mark Martin won the Coors Light Pole Award for the Kobalt Tool 500 with a lap of 29.640 seconds, 187.045 mph. He joined Harry Gant as the only drivers to post a pole at over 50 years of age in NASCAR premier series. Gant had three poles after turning 50. Martin’s 50th birthday was Jan 9, 2009.
This is his 42nd pole in 726 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races. Martin’s last pole was at Richmond on May 5, 2001, 281 races ago. Martin competed in 256 of those races.
This is his first pole and third top-10 start in 2009. Martin posted six second-place starts in 2008 and has one already this season (Daytona).
This is his second pole in 47 races at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Martin has multiple top-10 starts in all three national series at Atlanta.
Kurt Busch (second) posted his third top-10 start of 2009 and his sixth in 17 races at Atlanta. Busch posted his second runner-up start in as many races. He has started second four times now since his most recent pole which came at Auto Club Speedway in September 2007.
Jamie McMurray (third) posted his second top-10 start at Atlanta Motor Speedway. It is his second in four races this season.
Joe Nemechek (eighth) qualified for his third race of the season and posted his best start since he was seventh at Talladega last October.
Scott Speed (26th) was the fastest qualifying rookie.(NASCAR Statistics)(3-7-2009)