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Earnhardt Jr claims Atlanta Cup pole

Dale Earnhardt Jr claimed his first pole position in nearly two years in qualifying for Sunday's Sprint Cup Series race at Atlanta

The Hendrick Motorsports driver laid down a lap of 28.761 seconds at an average speed of 192.761 mph, knocking Kyle Busch off pole by less than a tenth of a second. Despite some top players running later into the session, Earnhardt's time stood unbeaten.

NASCAR's most popular driver had last been on pole 68 races ago when he started up front at Texas in April of 2008.

"The car was pretty good in practice, but we just needed to get a little bit better," said Earnhardt. "And we just need to hit that perfect lap. There are a lot of cars out there that are fast and able to run good. You've just got to hit the marks and everything and the car was there."

Busch will start on Sunday from the front row for the first time this year in his #18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, while Earnhardt Ganassi's Juan Pablo Montoya qualified third, which will give him his second top-three start of the year after running his trademark high line through the Atlanta banking.

"Today is the first time in a long time we came in from practice and say 'Oh, this doesn't drive that good.' So we had to work on it a lot today," said Montoya. "It seems like the track slowed down a little so to run that fast is pretty good."

Mark Martin, one of four drivers who tested at the track for Goodyear in January, had dominated practice earlier in the day but couldn't quite translate all his pace into qualifying, ending up fourth-fastest ahead of his Hendrick Motorsports team-mate Jeff Gordon, who recovered from having poor balance in his car during practice.

Reigning champion Jimmie Johnson didn't have a good lap as his car seemed to unsettle through turn two, and he ended up only 16th fastest, while points leader Kevin Harvick qualified poorly down in 35th, slowest of the Richard Childress Racing Chevys.

Bobby Labonte was the quickest of the non-guaranteed drivers, while Casey Mears failed to make the field again after suffering an engine failure in practice. Aric Almirola and Terry Cook also failed to qualify.

Pos  Driver              Make        Time
 1.  Dale Earnhardt Jr   Chevrolet   28.761
 2.  Kyle Busch          Toyota      28.833  + 0.072
 3.  Juan Montoya        Chevrolet   28.859  + 0.098
 4.  Mark Martin         Chevrolet   28.903  + 0.142
 5.  Jeff Gordon         Chevrolet   28.909  + 0.148
 6.  Kasey Kahne         Ford        28.922  + 0.161
 7.  Ryan Newman         Chevrolet   28.943  + 0.182
 8.  Elliott Sadler      Ford        28.960  + 0.199
 9.  David Reutimann     Toyota      28.998  + 0.237
10.  Carl Edwards        Ford        29.013  + 0.252
11.  Kurt Busch          Dodge       29.018  + 0.257
12.  Marcos Ambrose      Toyota      29.036  + 0.275
13.  Greg Biffle         Ford        29.049  + 0.288
14.  Matt Kenseth        Ford        29.058  + 0.297
15.  Tony Stewart        Chevrolet   29.073  + 0.312
16.  Jimmie Johnson      Chevrolet   29.081  + 0.320
17.  David Ragan         Ford        29.091  + 0.330
18.  Clint Bowyer        Chevrolet   29.093  + 0.332
19.  Martin Truex Jr     Toyota      29.095  + 0.334
20.  Denny Hamlin        Toyota      29.114  + 0.353
21.  Bobby Labonte       Chevrolet   29.138  + 0.377
22.  Jeff Burton         Chevrolet   29.145  + 0.384
23.  Paul Menard         Ford        29.181  + 0.420
24.  Jamie McMurray      Chevrolet   29.192  + 0.431
25.  A.J. Allmendinger   Ford        29.201  + 0.440
26.  Brian Vickers       Toyota      29.210  + 0.449
27.  Dave Blaney         Toyota      29.242  + 0.481
28.  Brad Keselowski     Dodge       29.245  + 0.484
29.  Joey Logano         Toyota      29.304  + 0.543
30.  Mike Bliss          Chevrolet   29.311  + 0.550
31.  Max Papis           Toyota      29.316  + 0.555
32.  Scott Speed         Toyota      29.321  + 0.560
33.  Joe Nemechek        Toyota      29.324  + 0.563
34.  Bill Elliott        Ford        29.330  + 0.569
35.  Kevin Harvick       Chevrolet   29.331  + 0.570
36.  Sam Hornish Jr      Dodge       29.338  + 0.577
37.  David Gilliland     Ford        29.436  + 0.675
38.  Regan Smith         Chevrolet   29.496  + 0.735
39.  Robby Gordon        Toyota      29.742  + 0.981
40.  Travis Kvapil       Ford        29.898  + 1.137
41.  Kevin Conway        Ford        29.998  + 1.237
42.  Boris Said          Ford        30.309  + 1.548
43.  Michael McDowell    Toyota      29.371  + 0.610

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