Mark Martin gets out of his car after finishing his qualifying laps for the Sprint Cup Series Sharpie 500 in Bristol, Tenn., Friday. Martin won the pole position for the race that is scheduled to be run Saturday night.

BRISTOL, Tenn. — Could there have been a better time for a bigger lap?

Five days after running out of fuel at Michigan and dropping precariously close to falling out of a potential spot in the Chase for the Sprint Cup, Mark Martin was back on top Friday.

Martin edged Greg Biffle to win the pole for Saturday night's Sharpie 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway to give himself a leg up toward securing a spot in the 12-driver Chase with three races remaining to set the field.

"It feels like I'm carrying a 200-pound gorilla on my shoulders," said Martin, who ran a lap of 124.484 mph to Biffle's 124.307. "I didn't need to choke today and we got a great lap."

Martin's fuel gamble didn't pay off at Brooklyn, Mich., and his 31st -place finish dropped him to 12th in the series standings and 12 points ahead of 13th-place Brian Vickers.

Martin said he and crew chief Alan Gustafson decided Tuesday the only strategy they would follow the next three races was to continue to perform at the level they have all season.

"If that's not enough then it's not enough. We do have the performance (this season). We can't let the things that we can't control—the racing Gods, the luck—we can't let that tear us apart," said Martin, who earned his fifth pole of the season and 46th of his Cup career.

"We don't know who's going to have a disaster (Saturday night) — I'm sure somebody is. I believe, that on any day at any racetrack, when they open gate and let these cars roll out on the track, everybody knows they've got to watch that No. 5 car.

"For me, that's enough."

Martin's season, it seems, has been filled with one comeback after another.

He started the year with blown engines in two of the first three races in the No. 5 Chevrolet. He didn't finish in the top 10 until the fifth race but broke through with a victory at Phoenix in the eighth race.

After winning the June 14 race at Michigan, he finished 35th or worse in two of the next three races, only to return to Victory Lane with a dominating performance at Chicagoland.

"It's a real big battle. It's mostly because I want (to make the Chase) for my team," said Martin. "For me, I've had lots of brutal disappointments.

"I care for this team, that's why I want it so bad. They want it so bad and they dig so hard. Alan will never give up and neither will I.

"We should be comfortable in the points standings, but we're not."

Biffle's starting position is helpful as well, considering he is 10th in the standings and only 30 points ahead of Martin.

"I've been spending time with the team, talking about what we need to do, just like Mark's talked about," Biffle said. "We were prepared when we came here off the truck.

"We had two very good practices. We only spent 2 Z\x hours working on the race car, figured a lot of stuff out, switched to qualifying. We got some opportunity to make the car better than I thought it was going to be, even."