Greg Biffle leads Roush Fenway team-mate Carl Edwards on front row at Kansas

Two-time Kansas winner Biffle beat the benchmark set earlier by Edwards by 56 thousandths of a second with a lap of 30.877 seconds, at an average speed of 174.887 mph. Underlining the strength of the Roush Fenway Fords, Matt Kenseth secured a place on the second row of the grid, beside the fastest Toyota of fellow title contender Kyle Busch.

"Today was a very trying day, we were 35th this morning when we unloaded from the truck," said Biffle after claiming his outfit's eighth pole of the season, more than any other Cup squad has managed thus far.

"We had a lot of work to do and I'm really proud of my team to come back and put it on pole here. That says a lot for a team and that's what a championship team is made of, somebody that can turn the day around and we definitely did that today."

Edwards, who joins Richard Childress Racing's Kevin Harvick at the top of the Chase standings, beat the rest of the title contenders on a flying lap, while most of them made it into the top-15 of the grid for Sunday's race. However the Roush driver did not get carried away by his result, as the field faces two more practice sessions on Saturday in order to work on race trim.

"Qualifying here is not indicative of how you are going to run the race," said Edwards. "Hopefully our qualifying effort translates into a good race but we have to focus really hard on race trim tomorrow. The race is a long one and you can pass here. It really matters how fast your car is in race trim."

Kasey Kahne kept the momentum rolling for Red Bull after his fourth place at Dover with fifth on the grid for Sunday, ahead of RCR's Paul Menard, who had been fastest in practice earlier.

Reigning champion Jimmie Johnson did not enjoy a great run and ended up 19th fastest, while Tony Stewart had yet another lacklustre qualifying effort which left him 23rd in the grid.

Scott Speed, who became a father this week, enjoyed his best qualifying since returning to Cup full-time, finishing 25th fastest as the best of the non-guaranteed drivers.

Right behind him RCR's Austin Dillon, who leads the Truck Series points standings, qualified solidly for his Cup debut in 26th.

David Starr, Josh Wise and Mike Skinner failed to make the field.

Pos  Driver              Team/Car                     Time     Gap
 1.  Greg Biffle         Roush Fenway Ford            30.877s
 2.  Carl Edwards        Roush Fenway Ford            30.933s  + 0.056s
 3.  Kyle Busch          Gibbs Toyota                 30.955s  + 0.078s
 4.  Matt Kenseth        Roush Fenway Ford            30.957s  + 0.080s
 5.  Kasey Kahne         Red Bull Toyota              30.961s  + 0.084s
 6.  Paul Menard         Childress Chevrolet          30.978s  + 0.101s
 7.  Denny Hamlin        Gibbs Toyota                 30.995s  + 0.118s
 8.  Martin Truex Jr     Waltrip Toyota               31.012s  + 0.135s
 9.  Mark Martin         Hendrick Chevrolet           31.018s  + 0.141s
10.  Jeff Gordon         Hendrick Chevrolet           31.026s  + 0.149s
11.  Ryan Newman         Stewart Haas Chevrolet       31.029s  + 0.152s
12.  Brad Keselowski     Penske Dodge                 31.031s  + 0.154s
13.  David Ragan         Roush Fenway Ford            31.059s  + 0.182s
14.  Kevin Harvick       Childress Chevrolet          31.103s  + 0.226s
15.  Brian Vickers       Red Bull Toyota              31.105s  + 0.228s
16.  Regan Smith         Furniture Row Chevrolet      31.119s  + 0.242s
17.  Kurt Busch          Penske Dodge                 31.155s  + 0.278s
18.  Dale Earnhardt Jr   Hendrick Chevrolet           31.171s  + 0.294s
19.  Jimmie Johnson      Hendrick Chevrolet           31.181s  + 0.304s
20.  Joey Logano         Gibbs Toyota                 31.183s  + 0.306s
21.  Marcos Ambrose      Petty Ford                   31.202s  + 0.325s
22.  AJ Allmendinger     Petty Ford                   31.224s  + 0.347s
23.  Tony Stewart        Stewart Haas Chevrolet       31.226s  + 0.349s
24.  Clint Bowyer        Childress Chevrolet          31.234s  + 0.357s
25.  Scott Speed         Whitney Ford                 31.238s  + 0.361s
26.  Austin Dillon       Childress Chevrolet          31.264s  + 0.387s
27.  David Reutimann     Waltrip Toyota               31.285s  + 0.408s
28.  JJ Yeley            Front Row Ford               31.292s  + 0.415s
29.  Jamie McMurray      Earnhardt Ganassi Chevrolet  31.298s  + 0.421s
30.  David Gilliland     Front Row Ford               31.317s  + 0.440s
31.  Jeff Burton         Childress Chevrolet          31.323s  + 0.446s
32.  David Stremme       Inception Chevrolet          31.363s  + 0.486s
33.  Bobby Labonte       JTG Daugherty Toyota         31.366s  + 0.489s
34.  Juan Pablo Montoya  Earnhardt Ganassi Chevrolet  31.407s  + 0.530s
35.  Andy Lally          TRG Chevrolet                31.421s  + 0.544s
36.  Travis Kvapil       Front Row Ford               31.483s  + 0.606s
37.  Casey Mears         Germain Toyota               31.500s  + 0.623s
38.  Dave Blaney         Baldwin Chevrolet            31.581s  + 0.704s
39.  Reed Sorenson       Gordon Dodge                 31.609s  + 0.732s
40.  Michael McDowell    HP Toyota                    31.666s  + 0.789s
41.  Landon Cassill      Phoenix Chevrolet            31.675s  + 0.798s
42.  Mike Bliss          FAS Lane Ford                31.740s  + 0.863s
43.  Joe Nemechek        NEMCO Toyota                 31.737s  + 0.860s

Did not qualify:

     David Starr         Leavine Ford                 31.752s  + 0.875s
     Josh Wise           Max Q Ford                   31.837s  + 0.960s
     Mike Skinner        Germain Toyota               31.969s  + 1.092s