'Rookie' Martin Grabs First Pole Since '01

After two consecutive 40th-place finishes, Mark Martin desperately needs a rebound this weekend at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

Lucky for him, thanks to a qualifying lap that made the driver "feel like a rookie," Martin will start Sunday's Kobalt Tools 500 from the pole with Penske Racing's Kurt Busch alongside. Not bad for a driver that became the second-oldest pole winner in NASCAR Sprint Cup history.

It's been a long drought since Martin has started from the point of a Sprint Cup race -- you'd have to look back some eight years to May of 2001 at Richmond International Raceway -- and the 2009 season has looked much the same way for the rejuvenated Arkansas driver.

After floating around with a part-time schedule for the past few years, the 50-year-old Martin returned in 2009 as part of the same Hendrick Motorsports operation that has seen Jimmie Johnson win the last three Sprint Cup titles. Needless to say, the expectations for Martin were high.

He started the season well at Daytona by earning his 16th starting spot on the outside of the front row since winning that pole in 2001. The season-opener saw Martin wind up 16th before disaster struck his No. 5 team in the next two races.

A pair of engine failures at Auto Club Speedway and last week at Las Vegas Motor Speedway dropped Martin to 34th in the point standings, and a long way from where many feel he could wind up at the end of 2009 -- on top of the Sprint Cup standings. That lack of consistency would make any driver feel like a rookie, but for Martin, his Atlanta qualifying lap alone left him with that taste of being a newcomer to a sport he has some 35 career wins in.

"I feel like a rookie. I really, really do," said Martin. "Not only did the lap scare me and I felt like I ran out of talent up off of turn four -- there was no possible way I could hold my foot on the floor and not hit the wall with the back end first. But it was really fun.

"I live to scare myself like that."