Carpentier on Montreal Busch pole

Carpentier, driving the No. 22 Fitz Motorsports Dodge, made the most of being one of the four drivers in the final group of qualifying to set a lap of 1:42:086 at an average speed of 95.531 mph.

"If I would have read in a book about a perfect race at a perfect time and perfect timing with NASCAR, it couldn't be better than this," said Carpentier, who edged Max Papis' Chevrolet by just 0.062 seconds.

The Italian also qualified in the last group, as the field was split into nine groups according to the times from the final practice session on Friday afternoon.

Ron Fellows, another Canadian was third ahead of Boris Said and Australian Marcos Ambrose, once again the fastest of the Busch regulars in a very international top-five, which were split by less than half a second.

Ron Hornaday Jr was sixth while Mexico pole-sitter Scott Pruett was seventh, also the fastest of the seventh qualifying group. Swedish Niclas Jonsson was eighth, ahead of Stephen Leicht and Mexican Michel Jourdain Jr who makes his second Busch outing of the season for Roush Fenway.

The Nextel Cup drivers were unable to contend for pole as they all missed the final practice session on Friday due to conflicting times with practice and qualifying at Pocono. They were all among the early runners in the first few qualifying groups, despite some of them having relief drivers on Friday's final practice.

Robby Gordon was fastest of the first group and also quickest among the Buschwhackers, ending up in eleventh place, while Busch Series points leader Carl Edwards was 15th, still wearing a brace on his right hand due to his recent injury in a late model race.

Early in the morning before qualifying, officials had to work on the track surface, which was breaking in the hairpin like last year during the Formula One race. Additional work was carried out on the surface of turns one and two.