Kurt Busch continues pole run

Despite having crashed his primary car during the final practice session on Friday after losing control at Turn 2, the former Cup champion surprised with an impressive flying lap of 52.452 seconds, at an average speed of 171.579 mph, that allowed him to bump four-time Pocono winner Jeff Gordon from pole position.

Busch was the 40th car in the order on the first weekend of a tweaked qualifying system, the running order now determined by the inverted results of the first practice session of the weekend, including both the top 35 in the owners' standings and those having to qualify on speed.

Those who were faster than the Penske driver in practice were unable to match him for pace later on their flying laps, with Richard Childress Racing's Paul Menard coming closest while placing beside Busch on the front row of the grid.

"If it was raining we'd be starting last and luckily the weather held up and we're up on pole," said Busch. "To pull that back-up [car] out, that's a pole-winning car!

"That's something you wouldn't really hear about back in the day. It would be 'alright, you're going to have to struggle through the weekend, it's not the best of pieces'. It's great that we have that higher quality-control within our system.

"Yesterday, honestly, I missed my shift point and it got me into trouble. I was trying different things, changing the rear gear, changing the transmission, and just being in a different zone of elements of changes...

"Today, we went right back after it and I was aggressive and I used the same procedure as I did yesterday at practice where I wrecked to get the pole today."

The drivers with the best Pocono records will start from the second row of the grid with Gordon and Denny Hamlin starting third and fourth, while Furniture Row's Regan Smith, who held provisional pole for a while, rounded out the top five ahead of points leader Carl Edwards.

Mike Skinner crashed on his second qualifying lap after losing control out of Turn 1 and ended up missing the race. JJ Yeley was fastest of the non-guaranteed drivers in 22nd, while Sam Hornish Jr was 26th on his Cup return for Front Row Motorsports.

Pos  Driver              Team/Car                     Time     Gap
 1.  Kurt Busch          Penske Dodge                 52.454s
 2.  Paul Menard         Childress Chevrolet          52.502s  + 0.048s
 3.  Jeff Gordon         Hendrick Chevrolet           52.524s  + 0.070s
 4.  Denny Hamlin        Gibbs Toyota                 52.578s  + 0.124s
 5.  Regan Smith         Furniture Row Chevrolet      52.581s  + 0.127s
 6.  Carl Edwards        Roush Fenway Ford            52.614s  + 0.160s
 7.  Marcos Ambrose      Petty Ford                   52.682s  + 0.228s
 8.  Ryan Newman         Stewart Haas Chevrolet       52.776s  + 0.322s
 9.  David Reutimann     Waltrip Toyota               52.833s  + 0.379s
10.  Mark Martin         Hendrick Chevrolet           52.879s  + 0.425s
11.  David Ragan         Roush Fenway Ford            52.886s  + 0.432s
12.  Clint Bowyer        Childress Chevrolet          52.902s  + 0.448s
13.  Jamie McMurray      Earnhardt Ganassi Chevrolet  52.970s  + 0.516s
14.  Jimmie Johnson      Hendrick Chevrolet           52.981s  + 0.527s
15.  Tony Stewart        Stewart Haas Chevrolet       52.986s  + 0.532s
16.  Juan Pablo Montoya  Earnhardt Ganassi Chevrolet  53.034s  + 0.580s
17.  Kasey Kahne         Red Bull Toyota              53.044s  + 0.590s
18.  Bobby Labonte       JTG Daugherty Toyota         53.064s  + 0.610s
19.  Joey Logano         Gibbs Toyota                 53.091s  + 0.637s
20.  Brad Keselowski     Penske Dodge                 53.097s  + 0.643s
21.  Dale Earnhardt Jr   Hendrick Chevrolet           53.114s  + 0.660s
22.  JJ Yeley            Whitney Chevrolet            53.115s  + 0.661s
23.  Brian Vickers       Red Bull Toyota              53.116s  + 0.662s
24.  Andy Lally          TRG Chevrolet                53.138s  + 0.684s
25.  Landon Cassill      Phoenix Chevrolet            53.158s  + 0.704s
26.  Sam Hornish Jr      Front Row Ford               53.167s  + 0.713s
27.  Matt Kenseth        Roush Fenway Ford            53.184s  + 0.730s
28.  AJ Allmendinger     Petty Ford                   53.199s  + 0.745s
29.  Joe Nemechek        NEMCO Toyota                 53.201s  + 0.747s
30.  David Gilliland     Front Row Ford               53.217s  + 0.763s
31.  Martin Truex Jr     Waltrip Toyota               53.219s  + 0.765s
32.  Kevin Harvick       Childress Chevrolet          53.228s  + 0.774s
33.  Jeff Burton         Childress Chevrolet          53.276s  + 0.822s
34.  Kyle Busch          Gibbs Toyota                 53.289s  + 0.835s
35.  Casey Mears         Germain Toyota               53.360s  + 0.906s
36.  Michael McDowell    HP Toyota                    53.502s  + 1.048s
37.  Greg Biffle         Roush Fenway Ford            53.644s  + 1.190s
38.  Tony Raines         Front Row Ford               53.765s  + 1.311s
39.  Scott Riggs         Whitney Chevrolet            53.807s  + 1.353s
40.  Dave Blaney         Baldwin Chevrolet            53.874s  + 1.420s
41.  Mike Bliss          FAS Lane Ford                53.935s  + 1.481s
42.  Scott Wimmer        Gordon Dodge                 55.414s  + 2.960s
43.  TJ Bell             LTD Toyota                   54.011s  + 1.557s

Did not qualify:

     Mike Skinner        Germain Toyota               54.578s  + 2.124s