Kurt Busch wins Michigan pole

Despite raising track temperatures, the Penske driver beat the early benchmark set by Earnhardt Ganassi's Jamie McMurray, who had been first on the track in a session delayed due to rain earlier in the afternoon.

Busch set a lap time of 37.898 seconds at an average speed of 189.984mph, claiming his first pole ever at the two-mile speedway.

"I saw McMurray run in the 37s and said 'Wow, track is fast'," said Busch. "We freed up the car just a little bit to make sure we weren't on the tight side and that played perfect dividends for us. I felt like [Turns] 1 and 2 were good, but off Turn 4 is where I made most of my time."

McMurray made the most of the early conditions as he found lower temperatures on the asphalt just as crews had finished drying up the track following the rain that halted the first practice session of the weekend.

"I was impressed that Kurt was able to beat it when we ran as fast as we did," McMurray said. "I mean when the sun came out, I didn't think anybody would be able to match the lap that we did, but Kurt did a really good job to run quicker than what we did with the sun out."

Reigning champion Jimmie Johnson had been the pacesetter for most of the practice and he backed that up in qualifying, putting his Hendrick Motorsports Chevy third on the starting grid. Richard Petty Motorsports' Kasey Kahne was the best of the Ford runners at their home race, the new FR9 power-plant boosting him up to the second row of the grid.

Richard Childress Racing's Jeff Burton rounded out the top five on the grid, followed by Jeff Gordon, while Joe Gibbs Racing's Denny Hamlin was fastest Toyota in seventh.

Juan Pablo Montoya had been fastest in practice before the rain arrived on the track but ended up 10th in qualifying.

Wood Brothers' Bill Elliot, as all the Ford drivers this weekend, put the FR9 to good effect to be fastest among the non-guaranteed drivers in 28th, while Dave Blaney, Michael Waltrip and Johnny Sauter failed to make the field.

Pos  Driver               Car            Speed      Time     Gap
 1.  Kurt Busch           Dodge          189.984    37.898
 2.  Jamie McMurray       Chevrolet      189.788    37.937 + 0.039
 3.  Jimmie Johnson       Chevrolet      189.668    37.961 + 0.063
 4.  Kasey Kahne          Ford           189.623    37.970 + 0.072
 5.  Jeff Burton          Chevrolet      189.474    38.000 + 0.102
 6.  Jeff Gordon          Chevrolet      189.359    38.023 + 0.125
 7.  Denny Hamlin         Toyota         189.145    38.066 + 0.168
 8.  Ryan Newman          Chevrolet      189.051    38.085 + 0.187
 9.  David Reutimann      Toyota         188.907    38.114 + 0.216
10.  Juan Montoya         Chevrolet      188.654    38.165 + 0.267
11.  Elliott Sadler       Ford           188.521    38.192 + 0.294
12.  Joey Logano          Toyota         188.314    38.234 + 0.336
13.  Martin Truex         Toyota         188.309    38.235 + 0.337
14.  David Ragan          Ford           188.270    38.243 + 0.345
15.  Kyle Busch           Toyota         188.245    38.248 + 0.350
16.  Greg Biffle          Ford           188.245    38.248 + 0.350
17.  Tony Stewart         Chevrolet      188.221    38.253 + 0.355
18.  Sam Hornish Jr       Dodge          187.867    38.325 + 0.427
19.  Carl Edwards         Ford           187.813    38.336 + 0.438
20.  Robby Gordon         Toyota         187.642    38.371 + 0.473
21.  Paul Menard          Ford           187.603    38.379 + 0.481
22.  Mark Martin          Chevrolet      187.603    38.379 + 0.481
23.  Regan Smith          Chevrolet      187.593    38.381 + 0.483
24.  Marcos Ambrose       Toyota         187.529    38.394 + 0.496
25.  Clint Bowyer         Chevrolet      187.480    38.404 + 0.506
26.  AJ Allmendinger      Ford           187.436    38.413 + 0.515
27.  Dale Earnhardt       Chevrolet      187.393    38.422 + 0.524
28.  Bill Elliott         Ford           187.251    38.451 + 0.553
29.  Scott Speed          Toyota         187.246    38.452 + 0.554
30.  Bobby Labonte        Chevrolet      186.848    38.534 + 0.636
31.  Kevin Harvick        Chevrolet      186.615    38.582 + 0.684
32.  Casey Mears          Toyota         186.398    38.627 + 0.729
33.  Brad Keselowski      Dodge          186.292    38.649 + 0.751
34.  Travis Kvapil        Ford           186.191    38.670 + 0.772
35.  Landon Cassill       Chevrolet      186.090    38.691 + 0.793
36.  David Gilliland      Ford           185.946    38.721 + 0.823
37.  Joe Nemechek         Toyota         185.922    38.726 + 0.828
38.  Max Papis            Toyota         185.821    38.747 + 0.849
39.  Matt Kenseth         Ford           185.538    38.806 + 0.908
40.  JJ Yeley             Dodge          185.209    38.875 + 0.977
41.  Todd Bodine          Toyota         184.914    38.937 + 1.039
42.  Kevin Conway         Ford           183.271    39.286 + 1.388
43.  David Stremme        Ford           184.862    38.948 + 1.050