Tony Stewart claims first pole of his 2011 season at Charlotte

Rebounding from two weekends where he lost ground in the standings - after winning the first two races of the play-off - the two-time Cup champion beat the benchmark set by fellow title contender Matt Kenseth by 0.006 seconds in order to win his first pole position in more than a year.

"I thought we could pick up time [relative to practice] because we were watching lap times and guys weren't picking up as much [time] as we're used to seeing here at Charlotte," said Stewart. "I knew [Stewart Haas team-mate] Ryan [Newman] would put in a good lap.

"I rely on Ryan a lot when it comes to qualifying because he's the master at it for sure. So just took some of the information he gave us and went forward.

"It'd be nice to be the first guy to get to the start-finish line at the start of the race this week. This is a place where track position is really important so this is an awesome start for our team."

The Roush Fenway Fords of Kenseth and Chase leader Carl Edwards were two of a total four Fusions in the top five as Richard Petty's AJ Allmendinger and Roush's Greg Biffle were fourth and fifth, ahead of Stewart's team-mate Newman.

Richard Childress Racing's Paul Menard and Red Bull's Kasey Kahne had been fastest earlier in practice but could not improve significantly on their qualifying runs and ended up seventh and eighth, ahead of reigning champion Jimmie Johnson.

Most of the title contenders were spread through the field, Richard Childress Racing's Kevin Harvick pipping Hendrick's Dale Earnhardt Jr for provisional pole after his run but ending up just inside the top 15 in the order.

Penske drivers Kurt Busch and Brad Keselowski were among those not enjoying solid qualifying runs - ending up 20th and 26th respectively.

Trevor Bayne was the fastest of those having to make the race on speed, securing a top-10 starting spot on his series return after last racing a Cup car five weeks ago at Chicagoland Speedway. Former Truck Series champion Geoffrey Bodine, Scott Speed and Josh Wise failed to make the field.

Teams will run two practice sessions on Friday focusing on race preparations ahead of Saturday night's event.

Pos  Driver              Team/Car                     Time     Gap
 1.  Tony Stewart        Stewart Haas Chevrolet       28.131s
 2.  Matt Kenseth        Roush Fenway Ford            28.137s  + 0.006s
 3.  Carl Edwards        Roush Fenway Ford            28.144s  + 0.013s
 4.  AJ Allmendinger     Petty Ford                   28.159s  + 0.028s
 5.  Greg Biffle         Roush Fenway Ford            28.163s  + 0.032s
 6.  Ryan Newman         Stewart Haas Chevrolet       28.186s  + 0.055s
 7.  Paul Menard         Childress Chevrolet          28.204s  + 0.073s
 8.  Kasey Kahne         Red Bull Toyota              28.214s  + 0.083s
 9.  Jimmie Johnson      Hendrick Chevrolet           28.222s  + 0.091s
10.  Trevor Bayne        Wood Brothers Ford           28.234s  + 0.103s
11.  David Ragan         Roush Fenway Ford            28.272s  + 0.141s
12.  Marcos Ambrose      Petty Ford                   28.272s  + 0.141s
13.  Mark Martin         Hendrick Chevrolet           28.287s  + 0.156s
14.  Kevin Harvick       Childress Chevrolet          28.288s  + 0.157s
15.  Dale Earnhardt Jr   Hendrick Chevrolet           28.297s  + 0.166s
16.  Joey Logano         Gibbs Toyota                 28.299s  + 0.168s
17.  Denny Hamlin        Gibbs Toyota                 28.302s  + 0.171s
18.  Martin Truex Jr     Waltrip Toyota               28.326s  + 0.195s
19.  Clint Bowyer        Childress Chevrolet          28.330s  + 0.199s
20.  Kurt Busch          Penske Dodge                 28.336s  + 0.205s
21.  Regan Smith         Furniture Row Chevrolet      28.357s  + 0.226s
22.  Bobby Labonte       JTG Daugherty Toyota         28.383s  + 0.252s
23.  Jeff Gordon         Hendrick Chevrolet           28.420s  + 0.289s
24.  Casey Mears         Germain Toyota               28.462s  + 0.331s
25.  Kyle Busch          Gibbs Toyota                 28.490s  + 0.359s
26.  Brad Keselowski     Penske Dodge                 28.493s  + 0.362s
27.  Jamie McMurray      Earnhardt Ganassi Chevrolet  28.511s  + 0.380s
28.  Jeff Burton         Childress Chevrolet          28.559s  + 0.428s
29.  David Reutimann     Waltrip Toyota               28.583s  + 0.452s
30.  Landon Cassill      Phoenix Chevrolet            28.594s  + 0.463s
31.  Brian Vickers       Red Bull Toyota              28.606s  + 0.475s
32.  Juan Pablo Montoya  Earnhardt Ganassi Chevrolet  28.613s  + 0.482s
33.  David Gilliland     Front Row Ford               28.632s  + 0.501s
34.  Travis Kvapil       Front Row Ford               28.682s  + 0.551s
35.  Dave Blaney         Baldwin Chevrolet            28.687s  + 0.556s
36.  David Stremme       Inception Chevrolet          28.736s  + 0.605s
37.  Michael McDowell    HP Toyota                    28.807s  + 0.676s
38.  JJ Yeley            Front Row Ford               28.818s  + 0.687s
39.  Joe Nemechek        NEMCO Toyota                 28.829s  + 0.698s
40.  Andy Lally          TRG Ford                     28.930s  + 0.799s
41.  Hermie Sadler       TRG Ford                     29.083s  + 0.952s
42.  Mike Bliss          FAS Lane Ford                29.120s  + 0.989s
43.  Robby Gordon        Gordon Dodge                 28.985s  + 0.854s

Did not qualify:

     Geoffrey Bodine     Baldwin Chevrolet            28.994s  + 0.863s
     Scott Speed         Whitney Ford                 29.000s  + 0.869s
     Josh Wise           Max Q Ford                   29.129s  + 0.998s