Martin, in the No.5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, turned in a lap of 29.640 seconds (187.045 m.p.h.) for his 42nd career Sprint Cup Series pole, but his first one since May 2001 at Richmond. He is currently 12th on the series' all- time pole winners list.

Martin also became just the second driver in NASCAR's premier series to win a pole at over 50 years of age. He joined Harry Gant, who scored three poles after turning 50.

"I feel like a rookie, I really, really do," said Martin, who turned 50 years old on January 9. "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 up off of turn four.

"It was really fun, I live to scare myself like that, that is part of it. But, I continued to be nervous all the way through the rest of qualifying much like I used back in the early '90s when we lucky enough to get poles back then. Has been a long time."

Martin recorded a pair of 40th-place finishes the last two weeks at California and Las Vegas after engine failure ended his days there prematurely. He started the season with a 16th-place finish at Daytona. Martin is currently 34th in Sprint Cup points.

Kurt Busch will start on the outside pole for the second week in a row. Busch posted the second-best lap at 29.748 seconds.

"We're real happy with the way the Miller Lite Dodge is running," Busch said. "We're calling this 'Round 3' here at Atlanta with the mile-and-a-half race tracks. So far, we feel that we've made great gains."

Jamie McMurray qualified third, followed by Juan Pablo Montoya and Greg Biffle.

Sixth through 10th were: Denny Hamlin, Jimmie Johnson, Joe Nemechek, Kyle Busch and Kevin Harvick.

Busch is the defending race winner at Atlanta. He also picked up the victory last weekend at his hometown track in Las Vegas.

Ryan Newman attempted to capture his eighth career pole at Atlanta and break Buddy Baker's track record, but Newman settled for 12th in qualifying.

Jeff Gordon, who currently holds an 18-point lead, will start 16th.

Todd Bodine, Scott Riggs, Jeremy Mayfield and Geoff Bodine failed to qualify.

Sunday's race is scheduled to begin around 2:00 p.m. (et).