Kurt Busch on record Vegas pole

The former series champion set a lap of 28.614 seconds at an average speed of 188.725 mph, beating the previous benchmark of the session set earlier by Jeff Gordon.

Busch had not been on pole since 2007, and had never been fastest in qualifying in the current specification of Sprint Cup car.

Last year his younger brother Kyle started from pole to take a popular home victory at Las Vegas and Kurt hopes to benefit from the know-how of his crew chief Steve Addington, who was with Kyle a year ago and took him to Victory Lane.

"That was an unexpected lap," said Busch. "Looking back at some of the decisions that Steve Addington made, just looking at our notebook, I'm following his directions on some of the key things that maybe I've been missing with this car.

"Just to get a pole with this car - is my first one. It's been that long. Unfortunately that's been the process of getting to this point but it's a fun car to win, a fun car to race with and now a fun car to qualify with. To do it here in my hometown is really exciting."

Gordon will share the front row with the Penske racer, while Hendrick-powered cars swept the second row with Stewart Haas's Ryan Newman and Hendrick Motorsports' Dale Earnhardt Jr, who sat on provisional pole for most of the session, being the first of 18 drivers to break the track record.

Last year's winner Kyle Busch was fifth as the best Toyota, sharing the third row with his Joe Gibbs Racing team-mate Joey Logano. Roush Fenway's Greg Biffle was seventh quickest and the best Ford, followed by the Chevy of Hendrick Motorsports' Mark Martin.

Stewart Haas's Tony Stewart and Earnhardt Ganassi's Juan Pablo Montoya, who had been fastest in practice, rounded out the top ten. Points leader Kevin Harvick slammed the wall in practice and qualified the same car later in the day, ending up 34th fastest.

Furniture Row's Joe Nemechek was best among the non-guaranteed drivers in 15th, while Casey Mears and Terry Cook failed to qualify.

Pos  Driver              Make        Time
 1.  Kurt Busch          Dodge       28.614
 2.  Jeff Gordon         Chevrolet   28.625  + 0.011
 3.  Ryan Newman         Chevrolet   28.696  + 0.082
 4.  Dale Earnhardt Jr   Chevrolet   28.697  + 0.083
 5.  Kyle Busch          Toyota      28.700  + 0.086
 6.  Joey Logano         Toyota      28.783  + 0.169
 7.  Greg Biffle         Ford        28.785  + 0.171
 8.  Mark Martin         Chevrolet   28.800  + 0.186
 9.  Tony Stewart        Chevrolet   28.886  + 0.272
10.  Juan Montoya        Chevrolet   28.909  + 0.295
11.  Matt Kenseth        Ford        28.916  + 0.302
12.  Carl Edwards        Ford        28.946  + 0.332
13.  Clint Bowyer        Chevrolet   28.947  + 0.333
14.  Sam Hornish Jr      Dodge       28.963  + 0.349
15.  Joe Nemechek        Toyota      28.977  + 0.363
16.  Brad Keselowski     Dodge       28.994  + 0.380
17.  David Reutimann     Toyota      28.996  + 0.382
18.  David Ragan         Ford        29.003  + 0.389
19.  Kasey Kahne         Ford        29.033  + 0.419
20.  Jimmie Johnson      Chevrolet   29.038  + 0.424
21.  Max Papis           Toyota      29.111  + 0.497
22.  Jeff Burton         Chevrolet   29.127  + 0.513
23.  Scott Speed         Toyota      29.152  + 0.538
24.  Jamie McMurray      Chevrolet   29.172  + 0.558
25.  Travis Kvapil       Ford        29.180  + 0.566
26.  Paul Menard         Ford        29.225  + 0.611
27.  Denny Hamlin        Toyota      29.250  + 0.636
28.  Regan Smith         Chevrolet   29.254  + 0.640
29.  Bobby Labonte       Chevrolet   29.260  + 0.646
30.  Mike Bliss          Chevrolet   29.262  + 0.648
31.  Brian Vickers       Toyota      29.275  + 0.661
32.  Marcos Ambrose      Toyota      29.277  + 0.663
33.  Michael McDowell    Toyota      29.278  + 0.664
34.  Kevin Harvick       Chevrolet   29.335  + 0.721
35.  Martin Truex Jr     Toyota      29.354  + 0.740
36.  Dave Blaney         Toyota      29.355  + 0.741
37.  Elliott Sadler      Ford        29.433  + 0.819
38.  David Gilliland     Ford        29.676  + 1.062
39.  Kevin Conway        Ford        29.696  + 1.082
40.  A.J. Allmendinger   Ford        29.830  + 1.216
41.  Boris Said          Ford        30.580  + 1.966
42.  Robby Gordon        Toyota        -        -
43.  Aric Almirola       Chevrolet   29.542  + 0.928