Kahne claims record Darlington pole

The Red Bull Racing driver bumped Hendrick Motorsports' Jeff Gordon from the top spot with a lap time of 27.131 seconds at an average speed of 181.254 mph. His benchmark stood unbeaten for the remainder of the session, with Stewart Haas' Ryan Newman getting the closest after running last in the qualifying order, finishing more than a tenth of a second adrift.

"I don't know if I could go a lot faster than that, but I just felt like maybe I missed getting back to the throttle that first lap in [Turn] 3 by a touch, maybe by a tenth or something. It was still an awesome lap," said Kahne, who was one of three drivers who participated in a Goodyear test last March, where the tyre manufacturer selected the softer specification being used for this weekend.

"The team gave me one of the best qualifying cars I've had in a long, long time," added Kahne. "It's a blast to drive a car that's so good around the track. To go fast at this track, to me it's a little extra than anywhere else because you're right by the wall and everything happens so fast. It's a pretty cool track. Pretty excited we got pole position for this one."

Joe Gibbs Racing's Denny Hamlin, who won the event last year was third fastest ahead of Roush Fenway's Carl Edwards, while Gordon ended up fifth. Richard Petty's AJ Allmendinger was seventh ahead of Kahne's team-mate Brian Vickers, while SHR's Tony Stewart and the Penske Dodge of Brad Keselowski rounded out the top 10.

Practice was hampered earlier in the day first due to debris after Kurt Busch crashed his Penske Dodge after a tyre was cut, then due to rain interrupting the first two-hour session almost halfway through. The second session was cancelled altogether as rain intensified into the afternoon. This left teams with very restricted running ahead of the race, which will be run under the lights, whereas practice took place on Friday morning.

Some drivers focused mainly on race-trim and consequently failed to get a good starting spot for Saturday night's event at the egg-shaped 1.366-mile track.

"Well, it's kind of tough because of the rain," said Kahne. "We didn't get as much as we wanted and I didn't feel like we were good enough to win tomorrow night, so we're going to have to make a couple more adjustments and hope that it's the right direction and then work on it throughout the race. Try to keep that track position."

Front Row Motorsports' Travis Kvapil was best among those having to qualify on speed for the event. The engine on Scott Riggs' Whitney Motorsports Chevrolet failed during his qualifying run, meaning he was left out of the field. Andy Lally and Brian Keselowski also failed to qualify.

Pos  Driver              Team/Car                     Time     Gap
 1.  Kasey Kahne         Red Bull Toyota              27.131s
 2.  Ryan Newman         Stewart Haas Chevrolet       27.255s  + 0.124s
 3.  Denny Hamlin        Gibbs Toyota                 27.300s  + 0.169s
 4.  Carl Edwards        Roush Fenway Ford            27.323s  + 0.192s
 5.  Jeff Gordon         Hendrick Chevrolet           27.346s  + 0.215s
 6.  Marcos Ambrose      Petty Ford                   27.370s  + 0.239s
 7.  AJ Allmendinger     Petty Ford                   27.404s  + 0.273s
 8.  Brian Vickers       Red Bull Toyota              27.433s  + 0.302s
 9.  Tony Stewart        Stewart Haas Chevrolet       27.456s  + 0.325s
10.  Brad Keselowski     Penske Dodge                 27.460s  + 0.329s
11.  David Ragan         Roush Fenway Ford            27.461s  + 0.330s
12.  Jamie McMurray      Earnhardt Ganassi Chevrolet  27.491s  + 0.360s
13.  Kevin Harvick       Childress Chevrolet          27.536s  + 0.405s
14.  Kyle Busch          Gibbs Toyota                 27.558s  + 0.427s
15.  Bobby Labonte       JTG Daugherty Toyota         27.568s  + 0.437s
16.  Juan Pablo Montoya  Earnhardt Ganassi Chevrolet  27.586s  + 0.455s
17.  Joey Logano         Gibbs Toyota                 27.602s  + 0.471s
18.  Paul Menard         Childress Chevrolet          27.611s  + 0.480s
19.  Jimmie Johnson      Hendrick Chevrolet           27.621s  + 0.490s
20.  Matt Kenseth        Roush Fenway Ford            27.628s  + 0.497s
21.  Travis Kvapil       Front Row Ford               27.629s  + 0.498s
22.  Greg Biffle         Roush Fenway Ford            27.634s  + 0.503s
23.  Regan Smith         Furniture Row Chevrolet      27.647s  + 0.516s
24.  Jeff Burton         Childress Chevrolet          27.654s  + 0.523s
25.  Kurt Busch          Penske Dodge                 27.665s  + 0.534s
26.  Clint Bowyer        Childress Chevrolet          27.670s  + 0.539s
27.  Landon Cassill      Phoenix Chevrolet            27.678s  + 0.547s
28.  Mark Martin         Hendrick Chevrolet           27.687s  + 0.556s
29.  Martin Truex Jr     Waltrip Toyota               27.770s  + 0.639s
30.  Dale Earnhardt Jr   Hendrick Chevrolet           27.827s  + 0.696s
31.  JJ Yeley            Whitney Chevrolet            27.833s  + 0.702s
32.  Casey Mears         Germain Toyota               27.879s  + 0.748s
33.  TJ Bell             LTD Toyota                   27.903s  + 0.772s
34.  Mike Skinner        Germain Toyota               27.909s  + 0.778s
35.  Tony Raines         Front Row Ford               27.911s  + 0.780s
36.  David Reutimann     Waltrip Toyota               27.921s  + 0.790s
37.  David Gilliland     Front Row Ford               28.025s  + 0.894s
38.  David Stremme       Inception Chevrolet          28.035s  + 0.904s
39.  Michael McDowell    HP Toyota                    28.044s  + 0.913s
40.  Ken Schrader        FAS Lane Ford                28.054s  + 0.923s
41.  Joe Nemechek        NEMCO Toyota                 28.165s  + 1.034s
42.  Dave Blaney         Baldwin Chevrolet            28.225s  + 1.094s
43.  Robby Gordon        Gordon Dodge                 28.235s  + 1.104s

Did not qualify:

     Scott Riggs         Whitney Chevrolet            28.247s  + 1.116s
     Andy Lally          TRG Ford                     28.613s  + 1.482s
     Brian Keselowski    K-Automotive Dodge           28.776s  + 1.645s