Kahne takes first pole at Toyota

In only his fifth outing at the wheel of the #83 Camry, Kahne was able to make the most of the improving track conditions late in qualifying to beat the standing benchmark set by last week's winner Carl Edwards. His lap of 30.525 seconds was at an average speed of 176.904mph.

"That was the best qualifying run by far since I joined Red Bull," said Kahne. "I look forward to Sunday's race. It's going to be exciting being up front now, being in the mix with Denny [Hamlin], Kevin [Harvick] and Jimmie [Johnson].

"They're all going to be fast throughout the race. I'm just glad we are so far. Hopefully we can stick with it tomorrow, have a good practice and be competitive in the mix on Sunday."

Just like a week ago, Edwards had been fastest in first practice and looked set to claim back-to-back poles before Kahne's run. The Roush Fenway driver, who won the season-finale two years ago, will see the green flag wave from the front row, ahead of the Chevy of Earnhardt Ganassi's Jamie McMurray and the Wood Brother's Ford of the impressive Bill Elliot, who was fourth and by far the best among those having to make the field based on qualifying speed.

A third Ford Fusion made it into the top five with Richard Petty's AJ Allmendinger taking fifth ahead of reigning champion Johnson, who came out head and shoulders above of his title rivals with sixth on the grid for the title decider. The Hendrick Motorsports driver had also been faster than both Hamlin and Harvick in practice earlier, setting the third quickest time while his rivals ended up 30th and 31st, focusing more on race set-up.

"We came down really well organised with scenarios we wanted to work with on the car if the handling went a certain way, and stuff worked as we had hoped which was nice to see," said Johnson. "I'm excited about how we'll start the race and then I'm also looking forward to practice tomorrow. There's some work to do there - we'll get on top of things and have some fun."

Richard Childress Racing's Harvick had his usual qualifying, finishing the session down in 28th place, while Hamlin ran too close to the wall on his first lap - ending up a bit wide at the exit of Turn 2, which forced him to complete a second lap that wasn't ideal either. The Joe Gibbs driver, who leads the points entering the final race of the year, will start from 37th, one place better than the spot he won from a year ago at this very track.

"Our car is going to be fine tomorrow, we know that." said Hamlin. "This is a track you can pass [on]. We're looking forward to that part of it. Friday has just never been our strong suit and so we gotta battle back again."

Greg Biffle hit the wall earlier during practice and switched to a back-up car for qualifying, while Michael McDowell and Patrick Carpentier both failed to make the field.

Pos Driver               Car          Time        Gap
 1. Kasey Kahne          Toyota       30.525s
 2. Carl Edwards         Ford         30.556s  +0.031
 3. Jamie McMurray       Chevrolet    30.558s  +0.033
 4. Bill Elliott         Ford         30.580s  +0.055
 5. AJ Allmendinger      Ford         30.583s  +0.058
 6. Jimmie Johnson       Chevrolet    30.598s  +0.073
 7. David Reutimann      Toyota       30.603s  +0.078
 8. Mark Martin          Chevrolet    30.605s  +0.080
 9. David Ragan          Ford         30.626s  +0.101
10. Regan Smith          Chevrolet    30.644s  +0.119
11. Jeff Gordon          Chevrolet    30.648s  +0.123
12. Elliott Sadler       Ford         30.651s  +0.126
13. Matt Kenseth         Ford         30.662s  +0.137
14. Jeff Burton          Chevrolet    30.672s  +0.147
15. Kurt Busch           Dodge        30.695s  +0.170
16. Paul Menard          Ford         30.721s  +0.196
17. Clint Bowyer         Chevrolet    30.723s  +0.198
18. Brad Keselowski      Dodge        30.734s  +0.209
19. Joey Logano          Toyota       30.742s  +0.217
20. Marcos Ambrose       Toyota       30.747s  +0.222
21. JJ Yeley             Chevrolet    30.761s  +0.236
22. Dale Earnhardt Jr    Chevrolet    30.796s  +0.271
23. Ryan Newman          Chevrolet    30.813s  +0.288
24. Aric Almirola        Ford         30.826s  +0.301
25. Martin Truex Jr      Toyota       30.830s  +0.305
26. Sam Hornish Jr       Dodge        30.838s  +0.313
27. Greg Biffle          Ford         30.852s  +0.327
28. Kevin Harvick        Chevrolet    30.870s  +0.345
29. Joe Nemechek         Toyota       30.876s  +0.351
30. Mike Bliss           Toyota       30.887s  +0.362
31. Tony Stewart         Chevrolet    30.889s  +0.364
32. Bobby Labonte        Chevrolet    30.889s  +0.364
33. Kyle Busch           Toyota       30.937s  +0.412
34. Casey Mears          Toyota       30.948s  +0.423
35. Andy Lally           Chevrolet    30.951s  +0.426
36. Dave Blaney          Ford         30.954s  +0.429
37. Denny Hamlin         Toyota       30.962s  +0.437
38. David Gilliland      Ford         31.049s  +0.524
39. Travis Kvapil        Ford         31.055s  +0.530
40. Juan Pablo Montoya   Chevrolet    31.212s  +0.687
41. Scott Speed          Toyota       31.216s  +0.691
42. Kevin Conway         Toyota       31.629s  +1.104
43. Landon Cassill       Toyota       30.954s  +0.429
DNQ Michael McDowell     Chevrolet    30.962s  +0.437
DNQ Patrick Carpentier   Ford         31.320s  +0.795