ESPN Sprint Cup

INDIANAPOLIS -- Rocco Mediate almost turned the golf world upside down last month when he took Tiger Woods to sudden death at the U.S. Open. Golfers at his age, 45, are supposed to be tuning up for the senior tour, not challenging the world's No. 1-ranked player for victory in a major event.

Old guys just aren't supposed to win in sports -- period.

Oh, it happens from time to time. Jack Nicklaus won the Masters at the age of 46 in 1986. George Foreman won a share of the heavyweight boxing title at 45 in 1994. Nolan Ryan threw the seventh no-hitter of his career at 44 in 1991.

Martin Navratilova won the mixed doubles title at the U.S. Open a month before her 50th birthday in 2006. Harry Gant was 52 years, 7 months and 6 days old when he won his last Sprint Cup race at Michigan in 1992.

Mark Martin hopes to follow in their footsteps on Sunday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

The 49-year-old driver came to the historic Yard of Bricks intent on winning for the first time since Kansas in 2005. He said over a month ago after 10th-place finish at Pocono that "I plan on winning the Brickyard in the 8 car."

Then on Saturday he qualified No. 8 car of Dale Earnhardt Inc. second beside Jimmie Johnson, who will become his teammate at Hendrick Motorsports next season when he makes one last run at the title after two years of a part-time schedule.

So if Martin were to do what Mediate couldn't complete at Torrey Pines Country Club few here will be surprised.

"He's Mark Martin," four-time Brickyard winner Jeff Gordon said. "You've got to exclude him out of the age category because that guy is just an extraordinary racecar driver."

Johnson agreed.

"Mark is much more consistent than Rocco," he said. "If you look at Rocco's rankings, he was like 120th or something. Mark is not a 120th-place driver."

Should Martin win, he would become the twelfth-oldest driver in Cup to reach Victory Lane. Gant holds the top six spots and eight of the top nine, winning twice at 52, five times at 51 and once at 50. Bobby Allison won at 50 and 49.

Martin would fall in line behind him, just ahead of Dale Earnhardt who was 49 years, five months and 16 days old when he won at Talladega in 2000.

Martin will be 49 years, 6 months and 14 days old by the time the checkered falls at Indianapolis.

Should Martin win, he would be four years older than Earnhardt was when he won the Brickyard in 1995.

"Honestly, I don't think age makes a difference as much as what people think the age makes a difference," said Ryan Newman, who qualified third.

The numbers say otherwise. The average age of winners this season is 30.2. Kyle Busch, 23, leads the way with seven wins. Carl Edwards, 29, is second with three.

Only three times in 19 races has a driver over 30 won. Jeff Burton was the oldest at 42.

So age apparently does matter. Even Martin admits the stars will have to be perfectly aligned for him to win.

"I need to make absolutely no mistakes," he said. "I have to be on my game and make absolutely no mistakes."

Martin wasn't thinking that at Pocono when he predicted victory here. He simply was thinking that the same setup that put him in position at that race and led to a third-place finish at Richmond would work on the flat corners of this 2.5-mile track.

"I didn't feel like Babe Ruth pointing at where he was going to knock it out," Martin said. "Maybe it was, but I didn't mean it that way."

The statement definitely was unlike Martin, who is usually conservative to the point of being pessimistic with his words. The look on Johnson's face when Martin made his bold prediction was one of total disbelief.

"I looked at him with that face because Mark never is optimistic about things," the two-time defending Cup champion 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, that's a huge statement."

Martin may look 49, but he certainly isn't acting it these days. He acted like a kid when he sat in the crowd and pretended to be a reporter during Johnson's post-qualifying interview.

"It's Mark Martin, and I'm with the U.S. Army 8 car," Martin quipped. "What springs are in your car?"

Johnson laughed.

"You'll know in December," he said, still laughing.

Martin hopes to be acting like a kid late Sunday afternoon in Victory Lane. He had a shot at winning here in 1997, running third, but pitted for gas late along with the two drivers ahead of him because of his history of running out of fuel at Roush Fenway Racing.

He did this after owner Jack Roush insisted he had enough gas to finish.

Ricky Rudd, who was fourth at the time, won.

"Jack swears we had plenty of gas," Martin said. "But, you know, that was our win."

Martin's confidence isn't limited to this weekend. He's returning to a full schedule next season at HMS because he seriously believes he has a chance to win the title that he has finished runner-up for four times.

"Mark is the fan favorite on any level for a championship race win, big race, whatever it may be," Johnson said.

That is a big reason Martin can run competitively at his age while others in the same age range struggle for rides. He's popular enough that top sponsors are willing to give him the full backing it takes to be competitive.

"The problem you've got today is sponsors don't want to pick up the older guys," owner Richard Childress said.

Martin, whose abs may rank second to former Roush teammate Carl Edwards because of his stringent workout routine, acknowledges that as well.

"You just don't know what it means to me to be competitive and drive a fast race car," Martin said. "The fan response is overwhelming. I think that a lot of your general race fans that aren't necessarily my fans still kind of use me as a secondary fan because I'm the last of the gray-hairs out there to some degree, you know?

"I know that some people might say that I have pretty good results on the race track, but I really, truly believe the only reason I still have a job in this sport is because of the support of the fans."

Talent may have something to do with it as well.

"There are extraordinary race-car drivers out there that can do amazing things no matter what age they are," Gordon said.

Martin hopes to prove that on Sunday.

David Newton covers NASCAR for ESPN.com. He can be reached at dnewtonespn@aol.com.