Newman on pole again at Charlotte

The driver nicknamed 'Rocket' made the most of the improving conditions as the sun set at one of his favourite tracks. His effort of 28.793 seconds at an average speed of 187.546mph bumped Martin Truex Jr from pole and remained the best throughout the session, giving him his ninth pole at Charlotte.

"That was the most courageous lap I probably could have ever had around here," said the Stewart-Haas racer. "I told the guys I was going to stick to what I ran in practice and that was the top. I watched what Juan [Pablo Montoya] did.

"He was up pretty good up off of two all the way down into three and just didn't get three and four quite right and he was the best car by far in practice. It was a good run for us and we'll see what we can do in the Coca-Cola 600."

All-Star winner Kurt Busch came closest to beating his former Penske team-mate and will join him on the front row of the grid, hoping to become the seventh driver to sweep both events at Charlotte in the month of May.

"It's funny, we ran 28.50s the other night in the All-Star and we couldn't even do that in qualifying trim right now," said Busch, alluding to the hot and humid conditions of the day. "It's just a good vibe we have. Things are going good and hopefully we can get it put together for the full 600 miles."

Truex Jr, who was runner-up to Busch in the All-Star, ended up third as the fastest Toyota on a good day for Michael Waltrip Racing, his team-mate David Reutimann in sixth place. Richard Petty Motorsports' Kasey Kahne was fourth in his Ford, making it four different brands in the top four spots of the grid.

Six-time Charlotte winner Jimmie Johnson rounded out the top five as the best from the Hendrick Motorsports camp, while Joe Gibbs Racing's Denny Hamlin, Joey Logano and Kyle Busch filled positions seven to nine.

Casey Mears, a former 600 winner, had a solid qualifying on his third weekend filling in for Brian Vickers, taking 13th on the grid for Sunday's race.

Montoya had been untouchable in practice earlier in the day but an early draw and a less than perfect balance on his run did not help him back up his pace in qualifying.

Brad Keselowski, who was among the early runners, spun on his qualifying attempt and hit the wall hard out of Turn 4. Roush Fenway's David Ragan also lost his car out of the same turn, but managed to avoid hitting the wall.

His team-mate Carl Edwards hit the barrier in practice earlier in the day and was forced to qualify a back-up car.

Dave Blaney was the fastest of the non-guaranteed drivers in 17th, while Reed Sorenson, Max Papis, David Stremme and Mike Bliss failed to make the field.

Pos  Driver              Car        Speed       Time     Gap
 1.  Ryan Newman         Chevrolet  187.546mph  28.793s
 2.  Kurt Busch          Dodge      187.292mph  28.832s  + 0.039s
 3.  Martin Truex Jr     Toyota     187.188mph  28.848s  + 0.055s
 4.  Kasey Kahne         Ford       187.169mph  28.851s  + 0.058s
 5.  Jimmie Johnson      Chevrolet  186.974mph  28.881s  + 0.088s
 6.  David Reutimann     Toyota     186.825mph  28.904s  + 0.111s
 7.  Denny Hamlin        Toyota     186.767mph  28.913s  + 0.120s
 8.  Joey Logano         Toyota     186.728mph  28.919s  + 0.126s
 9.  Kyle Busch          Toyota     186.528mph  28.950s  + 0.157s
10.  Clint Bowyer        Chevrolet  186.053mph  29.024s  + 0.231s
11.  Mark Martin         Chevrolet  186.021mph  29.029s  + 0.236s
12.  Jeff Burton         Chevrolet  185.803mph  29.063s  + 0.270s
13.  Casey Mears         Toyota     185.535mph  29.105s  + 0.312s
14.  Sam Hornish Jr      Dodge      185.459mph  29.117s  + 0.324s
15.  Jeff Gordon         Chevrolet  185.452mph  29.118s  + 0.325s
16.  Matt Kenseth        Ford       185.052mph  29.181s  + 0.388s
17.  Dave Blaney         Toyota     184.932mph  29.200s  + 0.407s
18.  AJ Allmendinger     Ford       184.906mph  29.204s  + 0.411s
19.  Joe Nemechek        Toyota     184.856mph  29.212s  + 0.419s
20.  Juan Pablo Montoya  Chevrolet  184.634mph  29.247s  + 0.454s
21.  Scott Speed         Toyota     184.609mph  29.251s  + 0.458s
22.  Johnny Sauter       Chevrolet  184.464mph  29.274s  + 0.481s
23.  Kevin Harvick       Chevrolet  184.407mph  29.283s  + 0.490s
24.  Dale Earnhardt Jr   Chevrolet  184.344mph  29.293s  + 0.500s
25.  Bill Elliott        Ford       184.344mph  29.293s  + 0.500s
26.  Tony Stewart        Chevrolet  184.326mph  29.296s  + 0.503s
27.  Jamie McMurray      Chevrolet  184.181mph  29.319s  + 0.526s
28.  David Gilliland     Ford       184.093mph  29.333s  + 0.540s
29.  Todd Bodine         Toyota     184.049mph  29.340s  + 0.547s
30.  Michael McDowell    Toyota     184.037mph  29.342s  + 0.549s
31.  Carl Edwards        Ford       183.949mph  29.356s  + 0.563s
32.  Regan Smith         Chevrolet  183.855mph  29.371s  + 0.578s
33.  Paul Menard         Ford       183.586mph  29.414s  + 0.621s
34.  Marcos Ambrose      Toyota     183.542mph  29.421s  + 0.628s
35.  David Ragan         Ford       183.306mph  29.459s  + 0.666s
36.  Robby Gordon        Toyota     183.281mph  29.463s  + 0.670s
37.  Brad Keselowski     Dodge      182.599mph  29.573s  + 0.780s
38.  Bobby Labonte       Chevrolet  182.562mph  29.579s  + 0.786s
39.  Elliott Sadler      Ford       181.977mph  29.674s  + 0.881s
40.  Greg Biffle         Ford       181.690mph  29.721s  + 0.928s
41.  Travis Kvapil       Ford       180.590mph  29.902s  + 1.109s
42.  Kevin Conway        Ford       179.838mph  30.027s  + 1.234s
43.  JJ Yeley            Dodge      183.243mph  29.469s  + 0.676s