Martin leads Hendrick front row sweep at Talladega

Autoracing Betting Lines

10/22/2011 - Talladega, AL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Mark Martin grabbed the pole for the Good Sam Club 500, while his teammate, Jimmie Johnson, qualified second to give Hendrick Motorsports the front starting row for Sunday's race at Talladega Superspeedway.

Martin turned a lap at 181.367 mph around the 2.66-mile superspeedway for his 51st career pole, which ranks him eighth on the Sprint Cup Series' all-time pole winners list.

"That's a huge number," Martin said. "It's pretty incredible, and it's speaks highly of all the people who have worked on my race cars through the years. I've had the privilege of driving so many fast race cars. This is such a tremendous team effort from everybody at Hendrick Motorsports."

It was Martin's second pole of the season and his third in 48 races at Talladega. His first pole this season came in July at Daytona -- the most recent restrictor-plate event.

Martin edged Johnson for the Talladega pole by only 0.002 seconds.

HMS has dominated qualifying on restrictor-plate tracks (Talladega and Daytona) this season. Dale Earnhardt Jr. won the pole for the Daytona 500, and Jeff Gordon claimed the top starting spot for the spring race at Talladega.

"We've been able to flex a lot of muscle on the restrictor-plate stuff lately, so I'm very proud of everyone at HMS," said Johnson, who won at Talladega earlier this year.

Team owner Rick Hendrick is one win away from capturing his 200th in NASCAR's premier series.

Clint Bowyer, the defending race winner, qualified third. Bowyer is leaving Richard Childress Racing at the end of the season to drive for Michael Waltrip Racing next year. He would love nothing more than to win one of his last five races with RCR.

"It would be a good way to cap off this relationship, and I couldn't think of a better way to do it than right here at Talladega," Bowyer said.

Trevor Bayne, who won this year's Daytona 500, qualified fourth. HMS teammates Gordon and Earnhardt Jr. took the fifth and sixth positions, respectively.

Paul Menard, David Ragan, Carl Edwards, the current points leader, and Ryan Newman completed the top-10.

Edwards enters the race with a five-point advantage over Kevin Harvick, who will start 13th. Matt Kenseth, last weekend's race winner at Charlotte, is presently seven points behind Edwards, who is his teammate at Roush Fenway Racing. Kenseth qualified 11th.

Johnson, attempting to win his record-extending sixth straight Sprint Cup championship, is 35 points out of the lead.

Geoffrey Bodine, Scott Speed, T.J. Bell and Josh Wise failed to qualify.

The 500-mile race at Talladega is scheduled to start just after 2:00 p.m. (et).

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Big East Conference odds

Work left to do: Villanova, Syracuse, DePaul, West Virginia, Providence

Notre Dame and Louisville appear to have done enough to make the move, so we'll make them locks. The Cardinals, despite a modest RPI, are trending way up and have clinched at least a tie for third in the Big East, which should be more than enough with their pair of big road wins. Villanova got back to .500 and gets back to more solid footing. Syracuse got a very important road win and crippled a fellow contender in the process. West Virginia's fate could be in its hands Tuesday at Pitt.

Work left to do:

Villanova [18-9 (7-7), RPI: 21, SOS: 5] Pounded Rutgers to get back to .500. If Cats can get their last two (at UConn, vs. Syracuse), that should be enough with strong computer numbers and a host of wins away from The Pavilion. The Cats have beaten Texas and swept the Big 5 (never easy in Philly), but have a couple of losses to bubble teams (Xavier, Drexel), too. I still think they'll be OK, possibly even at 8-8.

Syracuse [20-8 (9-5), RPI: 53, SOS: 62] History says 10 wins will be plenty, but it might be hard for the Orange to get that last one with a final two vs. G'town, which is trying to win the league title, and at Villanova, which will be desperate for a W. The relative lack of nonconference heft and the weak computer numbers are still concerns, but the Orange have won four in a row and got a very, very big win at Providence on Saturday.

DePaul [16-12 (8-7), RPI: 54, SOS: 18] Beat Cincy and should get past South Florida to get to 9-7, but then what? They have beaten Kansas and Cal (right after the DeVon Hardin injury) earlier this season, but also have lost to Bradley and Purdue, among others. They'll likely need a couple of BE tourney wins, too, but we'll see ...

West Virginia [19-7 (8-6), RPI: 58, SOS: 125] The game at Pitt on Tuesday night could decide the Mountaineers' fate (barring a deep tournament run). They can still get to 9-7 in the Big East without it by beating Cincinnati, but the nine wins would be against UConn, Villanova, St. John's, South Florida, DePaul, Rutgers, Seton Hall twice and the Bearcats. Beating bubble foes is fine, but where's the beef? Outside of beating PG-less UCLA in nonconference play (still a top quality win), there's not a lot to fall back on (besides maybe NC State). WVU vs. Syracuse would be an interesting debate, as the teams don't play in the Big East regular season. WVU has the best win, but Cuse has played the much better schedule.

Providence [17-10 (7-7), RPI: 70, SOS: 33] The Friars likely saw their at-large hopes die at home in the four-point loss to Syracuse, barring an unexpected run to the Big East semis or more. The RPI, bad already, won't be helped by playing St. John's and South Florida in the final two league games.

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