DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. " Hendrick Motorsports teammates Mark Martin and Dale Earnhardt Jr. secured the front row for the Daytona 500 on Saturday.
Martin, the only driver to top 191 mph during qualifying, earned his first Daytona 500 pole. Earnhardt will start second, trying to rebound from the worst season in his Sprint Cup career.
The front-row sweep validates, at least for a week, the offseason moves team owner Rick Hendrick made in an attempt to get Earnhardt's team turned around.
"It's such an incredible accomplishment for the 5 and 88 team," Martin said. "It's all about the team. That was not an accomplishment of mine. ... To have Dale Jr. on the outside of the front row, locked in, just means we're doing something right."
Earnhardt was nearly as optimistic.
"This is a start, and hopefully we can keep the ball rolling over the next several days and have a good Speedweeks," Earnhardt said.
Martin and Earnhardt are the only drivers in the 43-man field who have their starting positions locked in.
The top 35 drivers from last season are guaranteed starting spots in next Sunday's race, but their positions will be set in Thursday's 150-mile qualifying races. Eight other spots will be up grabs in those races, which could be wild affairs since NASCAR is giving drivers more horsepower and more leeway for aggressive driving.
Martin and Earnhardt, meanwhile, might just want to stay out of trouble.
Hendrick Motorsports, the most successful team in NASCAR right now, spent the offseason trying to get Earnhardt more in line with teammates Jimmie Johnson, Martin and Jeff Gordon " who swept the top three spots in the final standings last season.
Earnhardt, the sport's most popular driver, went winless in his No. 88 Chevrolet. He notched just five top-10 finishes, had his crew chief fired midway through the year and suffered through the most confidence-rattling season of his 10-year Cup career.
After celebrating Johnson's fourth consecutive Sprint Cup championship, Hendrick made getting Earnhardt's team turned around his top priority. He restructured shop practices and shifted a lead race engineer and a key mechanic from Martin's successful team to Earnhardt's struggling crew.
Whether the moves pay off won't really be known for some time, but for at least a week, it looks like Hendrick pushed all the right buttons.
"It takes a little bit of the pressure off and relieves a little bit of the stress," Earnhardt said. ©
Sports
Dale Jr., Martin up front at Daytona
- Sports
-
-
Defense helps Crusaders snap skid
The going hasn't been easy for the Susquehanna University women's basketball team this season. So much so, that it hasn't won a game in more than a month.
-
SU rides Harley to win
With the chants of "ride the Harley" coming from the student body, sophomore Harley Sellinger certainly took visiting Goucher for a spin Friday night.
-
HS Roundup: Braves close in on playoff bid
Counted for dead not too long ago, the Shikellamy Braves are still alive and kicking and they are now one win away from making the District 4 playoffs.
-
Danville stays in HAC-I title race
When their 13-point lead had been whittled to seven midway through the fourth quarter Friday, the Danville girls were at a tipping point.
-
Harold Raker's column on high school wrestling: Playing the name game
Going into last weekend, with four Valley teams competing in the District 4 Class AA and AAA Duals Tournament, I had already made tentative plans to be in Hershey this week. Had things gone really well, I would have still been in Chocolatetown, covering at least one of them in the state tournament.
-
NCAA denies UConn APR waiver request
The NCAA on Friday turned down the University of Connecticut's request for a waiver that would allow its men's basketball team to play in the 2013 national championship tournament.
-
College Lacrosse: Bucknell men prepare to improve upon great season
LEWISBURG -- It started a handful of years ago, when the Bucknell men's lacrosse team put a big 'X' on the national map in Central Pennsylvania with an upset of No. 1 Maryland. From that point on Bison coach Frank Fedorjaka has had a difficult time getting big-time opponents on the schedule, even with Bucknell opting to travel under the worst of circumstances.
-
High school football: Pratt says Kutztown the right fit
SUNBURY -- When Shikellamy's Tyler Pratt joins the Kutztown University football team as a free safety next fall, he will already have a good feeling for what his position coach will expect from him. Pratt, who signed a national letter of intent this week to accept a scholarship offer to play for the Golden Bears, will be under the tutelage of his father's high school football coach.
-
Todd Stanford On high school boys basketball: Increasing the refs' workload
If two heads are better than one, does that mean six eyes are better than four? Not necessarily, according to some Heartland Athletic Conference officials. There is a move afoot in the HAC to cut the number of basketball referees from three to two for part of the season beginning next year.
-
High School Roundup: Greenwood boys complete perfect TVL season
Greenwood capped off an unbeaten 2011-12 Tri-Valley League season by crushing Halifax 61-38 on Thursday Night.
- More Sports Headlines
-
Defense helps Crusaders snap skid
