Reutimann claims maiden pole

The Michael Waltrip Racing driver set a laptime of 31.462s at an average speed of 171.636 mph, beating the previous benchmark of last year's race winner Matt Kenseth by around four hundredths of a second.

"It feels great," said Reutimann, whose pole is the first for MWR since team owner Michael Waltrip at Talladega in October last year. "The car unloaded pretty fast and we just worked on it a little bit and progressively made it better."

Scott Speed will make it an all-Toyota front row at Sunday's Ford 400. The Californian also claimed his best qualifying result in Sprint Cup thus far, in what is just his fifth start in NASCAR's premiere division.

The 25-year-old is driving the No.83 Red Bull Toyota, not his regular No.84 car which his teammate Brian Vickers qualified 20th. The team swapped drivers in an effort to put Speed's car back inside the top 35 in the owner standings for the start of next season.

"I didn't exactly get a lot of practice," said Speed, who is also competing in the truck race this weekend. "I think that helped us, I guess we didn't have enough time to mess it up. The car came out obviously pretty good and we really didn't change anything all day.

"I'm just getting familiar with the Cup cars because they're a lot different to drive around here than the trucks. This is one of the tracks where the difference is a lot."

Kenseth was third and he will share the second row of the grid with his teammate, title contender Carl Edwards.

"Just the fact that we're starting in front Jimmie, that's a small victory for us," Edwards said. "The better chance we can have, the better pit stall selection we can have, the more traffic he's in, all of those things add up to a better chance for us to make this Cinderella story happen and come back from nowhere and win this."

Four of the five Roush Fenway cars qualified in the top seven, while three-time winner at Homestead Greg Biffle was the lowest qualifier for the team in 23rd.

Jimmie Johnson will start the final race of the season from deep in the field after qualifying only 30th for Hendrick Motorsports, whose cars will be spread through the grid on Sunday.

"I had some trouble coming to the green and lost some time trying to take the green flag and get going from there," said Johnson. "So it's probably not the qualifying effort that we wanted, but we had a great practice, we have a great car and we'll be just fine."

Juan Pablo Montoya had topped practice earlier in the day and sat on provisional pole, but his qualifying draw hampered his chances of claiming a better starting position. He will start 11th on Sunday, his personal best at Homestead and one of his best qualifying efforts of the season.

"It was an ok lap," said Montoya. "Going out so early hurt us which is frustrating because we have such a good car. I didn't think we would stick for the pole, but our car was fast off the truck today."

Sam Hornish Jr failed to qualify for the season finale and he now risks losing Rookie of the Year honours to Regan Smith, who qualified 26th for what will be his last race for DEI following the announcement of the Ganassi partnership which leaves him without a seat for next year.

Max Papis also failed to make the field for his Cup debut and Ken Schrader finished his season earlier that what he would've hoped after failing to make the grid for the title decider.

Pos Driver              Car             Time       Gap
 1. David Reutimann     Toyota          31.462
 2. Scott Speed         Toyota          31.494  +0.032
 3. Matt Kenseth        Ford            31.500  +0.038
 4. Carl Edwards        Ford            31.502  +0.040
 5. Kevin Harvick       Chevrolet       31.571  +0.109
 6. David Ragan         Ford            31.594  +0.132
 7. Jamie McMurray      Ford            31.606  +0.144
 8. Kyle Busch          Toyota          31.629  +0.167
 9. Reed Sorenson       Dodge           31.648  +0.186
10. Martin Truex Jr     Chevrolet       31.664  +0.202
11. Juan Pablo Montoya  Dodge           31.681  +0.219
12. Casey Mears         Chevrolet       31.688  +0.226
13. Tony Stewart        Toyota          31.697  +0.235
14. Robby Gordon        Dodge           31.725  +0.263
15. Bill Elliott        Ford            31.731  +0.269
16. Joe Nemechek        Chevrolet       31.731  +0.269
17. Jeff Burton         Chevrolet       31.743  +0.281
18. Kasey Kahne         Dodge           31.743  +0.281
19. Travis Kvapil       Ford            31.755  +0.293
20. Brian Vickers       Toyota          31.778  +0.316
21. Sterling Marlin     Chevrolet       31.784  +0.322
22. Dale Earnhardt Jr   Chevrolet       31.815  +0.353
23. Greg Biffle         Ford            31.852  +0.390
24. Elliott Sadler      Dodge           31.866  +0.404
25. Denny Hamlin        Toyota          31.867  +0.405
26. Regan Smith         Chevrolet       31.881  +0.419
27. Clint Bowyer        Chevrolet       31.892  +0.430
28. Chad McCumbee       Dodge           31.895  +0.433
29. Ryan Newman         Dodge           31.900  +0.438
30. Jimmie Johnson      Chevrolet       31.905  +0.443
31. Brad Keselowski     Chevrolet       31.916  +0.454
32. Tony Raines         Chevrolet       31.935  +0.473
33. Dave Blaney         Toyota          31.943  +0.481
34. David Gilliland     Ford            31.948  +0.486
35. Bobby Labonte       Dodge           31.958  +0.496
36. Paul Menard         Chevrolet       31.968  +0.506
37. Jeff Gordon         Chevrolet       32.079  +0.617
38. Kurt Busch          Dodge           32.084  +0.622
39. Scott Riggs         Chevrolet       32.095  +0.633
40. Aric Almirola       Chevrolet       32.139  +0.677
41. Marcos Ambrose      Toyota          32.232  +0.770
42. Michael Waltrip     Toyota          37.049  +5.587
43. AJ Allmendinger     Dodge           31.948  +0.486

Not qualified

    Ken Schrader        Toyota          31.990  +0.528
    Max Papis           Toyota          32.043  +0.581
    Sam Hornish Jr      Dodge           32.072  +0.610