Cruising with confidence

Johnson, Martin riding front row

Jimmie Johnson was top qualifier for the Brickyard 400, his 15th career pole and first at Indy. (Robert LeSieur/Reuters)

INDIANAPOLIS - Seven weeks ago when he qualified third for the Pocono 500, Mark Martin was brimming with so much confidence he boldly predicted he'd win today's Brickyard 400 with the same No. 8 car Dale Earnhardt Inc. had brought to Pocono.

Jimmie Johnson, who had qualified second that day, was taken aback by the statement. As he sat next to Martin in the post-qualifying press conference at Pocono, Johnson reared back, a stunned look on his face, and wondered who in the world was this impostor, because it certainly wasn't something Mark Martin would ever say.

"When Mark said that, I looked at him with that face because Mark never is optimistic about things," Johnson said. "The fact that he was so confident about it, I couldn't believe it was Mark Martin sitting next to me. For him to say that, I think that's a huge statement.

"He backed it up today with qualifying."

Although Johnson won the pole for the Brickyard 400 with a qualifying run of 181.763 miles per hour at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Martin seemed poised to make good on his prediction when he qualified second with a lap of 181.393 m.p.h.

"He's a much better racer than he is at qualifying," Johnson said of Martin, "so I would assume he's going to be one of the guys to beat. Of course, I'm very optimistic about our car and what we're doing. But for Mark to go out and make that type of comment, he's got something in store for us."

Of greater concern, though, is what NASCAR's new-generation car has in store for the field of 43 when it makes its debut at the Brickyard.

"This track is probably one of the worst for us being as narrow as it is, as flat as it is," said Johnson, the two-time and defending Sprint Cup champion who last year recorded his third DNF (did not finish) in his sixth career start at the Brickyard 400 after winning it two years ago en route to his first championship.

"It's a great facility, tons of history and all positive things about this racetrack," Johnson said. "But when you run single file, the first car has the best air and on back it gets worse and worse. You'll hear a lot about being tight, a lot about track position. I predict [it'll be talked about] more than what you've heard in the past. This car seems to be more sensitive to that stuff.

"We're very proud of where we're starting, that's why I put so much effort into starting up front and, hopefully, we can maintain that on Sunday."

Johnson captured the 15th pole of his career, second of the season, and first ever at Indy.

"All in all, I was really impressed with the car," Johnson said of his No. 48 Chevrolet. "Takes a little bit to get used to this track and remember the reference points and where to be. And we only ran six or seven laps [Friday], because things were working really well. Woke up [yesterday] morning and drove probably 50 laps in my mind, just to make sure I hit my marks.

"Rolled out there and got two of the four corners right and got the pole. I had a great car. I did make some mistakes on my lap, but this track sucks you into doing things that you regret."

While Chevrolet swept the front row, the Dodges of Ryan Newman and Kasey Kahne swept the second row. Toyota, meanwhile, struggled to place a car among the top 10, with the No. 20 of Tony Stewart ranking as the fastest at 179.480 m.p.h.

Kyle Busch, the Cup points leader who pulled triple duty this weekend, driving in Friday night's Craftsman Truck Series race and last night's Nationwide Series race at O'Reilly Raceway Park, will start 19th today after ranking as the third-fastest Toyota qualifier (178.767). Patrick Carpentier was the fastest rookie qualifier (179.476) and will start 15th.

Then there's Martin, the 49-year-old who has twice put off retirement and next year will leave DEI to join Dale Earnhardt Jr. at Hendrick Motorsports as driver of the No. 5 car.

So, what must he do to uphold his bold prediction?

"I need to make absolutely no mistakes," Martin said. "I have to be on my game and make absolutely no mistakes. My team just needs to do their routine work on pit road . . . when I made this statement I didn't feel like Babe Ruth pointing at where he was going to knock it out. Maybe it was, but I didn't mean it that way.

"What I did mean was that we were going to come here and be strong. I feel like that no matter what happens, I can halfway save face on the fact that we were top 10 in both practices and we qualified second. So, I think that prediction is coming true."

Michael Vega can be reached at vega@globe.com.