Rain puts Kyle Busch on Glen pole

Practice was scheduled to start shortly before noon but just as the cars were lining up at the end of pit road, rain forced officials to keep the red flag waving. As drizzle persisted later, the 95-minute session was cancelled.

Given that there was no practice at all, officials decided to cancel the qualifying, also because there was not enough time before the start of the support Grand-Am race to go ahead with the Sprint Cup qualifying procedure and a scheduled Nationwide series practice.

The starting grid for Sunday's race will thus be determined according to the owner standings, led by the No. 18 car of driver point's leader Kyle Busch, who will share the front row of the grid with Dale Earnhardt Jr.

"Right now it's the same for everybody on the Cup side as nobody has gotten on the track, so hopefully we'll be able to work on our cars tomorrow and make them better," said Busch, who starts from pole for the fifth time this season, the third he has been handed the top spot due to rain.

"Obviously having a good starting position really helps in being able to get up front. I kind of struggled with qualifying at Sonoma and we ended up 30th. Here this weekend starting up front should pay dividends. Hopefully we can have a fast enough race car to keep it up there and lead it out until the end."

Busch has won the two road-course events he has entered this season, first winning at Mexico City in the Nationwide series and then taking a commanding victory at Infineon Raceway in the Sprint Cup series. This weekend he could become the first driver in NASCAR history to win three three road-course races in the same year.

Carl Edwards, Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Burton will complete the top five on the grid followed by four-time race-winner Jeff Gordon, while pre-race favourite Tony Stewart will line up ninth beside JGR teammate Denny Hamlin.

Australian Marcos Ambrose picked up the 43rd and last spot on the grid in the No. 21 Wood Brothers Ford, while road-course specialists Brian Simo and Boris Said were sadly denied a chance to compete on Sunday.

Pos  Driver               Make
 1.  Kyle Busch           Toyota
 2.  Dale Earnhardt Jr    Chevrolet
 3.  Carl Edwards         Ford
 4.  Jimmie Johnson       Chevrolet
 5.  Jeff Burton          Chevrolet
 6.  Jeff Gordon          Chevrolet
 7.  Kasey Kahne          Dodge
 8.  Greg Biffle          Ford
 9.  Tony Stewart         Toyota
10.  Denny Hamlin         Toyota
11.  Kevin Harvick        Chevrolet
12.  Clint Bowyer         Chevrolet
13.  Matt Kenseth         Ford
14.  David Ragan          Ford
15.  Aric Almirola        Chevrolet
16.  Ryan Newman          Dodge
17.  Brian Vickers        Toyota
18.  Martin Truex Jr      Chevrolet
19.  Kurt Busch           Dodge
20.  Jamie McMurray       Ford
21.  Bobby Labonte        Dodge
22.  Elliott Sadler       Dodge
23.  Travis Kvapil        Ford
24.  Casey Mears          Chevrolet
25.  Juan Montoya         Dodge
26.  David Gilliland      Ford
27.  Paul Menard          Chevrolet
28.  David Reutimann      Toyota
29.  Dave Blaney          Toyota
30.  Reed Sorenson        Dodge
31.  Robby Gordon         Dodge
32.  Ron Fellows          Chevrolet
33.  Michael Waltrip      Toyota
34.  Sam Hornish Jr       Dodge
35.  Scott Riggs          Chevrolet
36.  Michael McDowell     Toyota
37.  AJ Allmendinger      Toyota
38.  PJ Jones             Toyota
39.  Patrick Carpentier   Dodge
40.  Kyle Petty           Dodge
41.  Joe Nemechek         Chevrolet
42.  Max Papis            Chevrolet
43.  Marcos Ambrose       Ford