Martin on pole for Bristol race tonight

BRISTOL, Tenn. — Mark Martin is trying to give Brian Vickers, a driver half his age, a run for his money.

Turning a lap in 15.414 seconds (124.484 mph) Friday at Bristol Motor Speedway, Martin, 50, weathered a determined run from Greg Biffle (124.307 mph) to win his second pole of the season at the .533-mile short track and his fifth of the season overall.

The starting position for tonight’s Sharpie 500 Sprint Cup Series race is especially important to Martin in his quest to solidify a position in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup. Martin is 12th in the standings — the last Chase-eligible spot — 12 points ahead of Vickers, who has claimed a series-best six poles this season.

Vickers qualified 14th, which puts him on the outside of the seventh row for the start of the race.

Rookie Scott Speed (124.146 mph) qualified third and will start next to fourth-place qualifier Dave Blaney (123.970 mph). Matt Kenseth (123.897 mph) will start fifth.

Knowing he had a fast car, Martin said he would have been on “suicide watch,” had he botched his qualifying lap.

“I have gotten a number of really nice laps qualifying this year,” said Martin, who has won nine poles at Bristol. “Not every lap can be like that, and I was afraid that the law of averages was going to get me here, and I was going to choke.

“This is the one place where we don’t need to be choking right now. We went out, and instead of playing it conservative, we put it out there and got another good lap. But I’m so relieved it’s over with. I feel like there’s a 200-pound gorilla off my back right now.

“I felt I was carrying it around there for about an hour and a half after practice. I knew we had a good car, but it’s really close out there, and in order to qualify good, you have to get a spectacular lap, because you’re driving against a bunch of other spectacular guys that are getting them, too. So it’s cool to have it in the books and all done.”