Kurt Busch claims third pole in a row

The Penske driver also made it four in a row for his outfit, counting Brad Keselowski's pole position for the Coke 600 at Charlotte last month.

Busch set a fastest lap of 38.156 seconds at an average speed of 188.699 mph, which bettered the previous benchmark set by Roush Fenway's Matt Kenseth. Later Michael Waltrip Racing's David Reutimann came to within just four thousandths of a second of beating Busch and will start alongside him on the front row.

"This is a first time that we have had a pole without spinning or wrecking our primary car," said Busch, who had incidents in practice ahead of qualifying in the last two weeks, even being forced to a back-up car for qualifying at Pocono.

"This was a conventional weekend so to speak. It's that way because the first few times after the big changes that we made, our car was very different to drive. Basically, it came down to core set-up in the car and it came to the core pieces that we're bolting on the car. It's not like we changed chassis design overnight, but there are small things that we've added there as well."

Kenseth will start third and is expected to be one of the strongest contenders on Sunday along with his Roush Fenway team-mates. Red Bull's Brian Vickers joins him on the second row of the grid with the fastest Toyota, while Regan Smith rounded out the top five as the fastest Chevrolet.

In their first race since serving their probation period, Richard Childress Racing's Kevin Harvick will be starting from 22nd, right ahead of Joe Gibbs Racing's Kyle Busch in 24th. Points leader Carl Edwards will start between them in 23rd, while second placed Jimmie Johnson took 21st.

Kyle Busch's team-mate Joey Logano qualified 30th but will go to the back of the grid following an engine change after his primary unit failed early in the final practice session on Friday. That was after both he and team-mate Denny Hamlin had to sit out the initial part of the first practice after NASCAR deemed that the design of the oil pans on all three engines from the Gibbs' cars had not been submitted for approval by the sanctioning body.

All three oil pans had to be changed before the cars could turn a lap of practice but still penalties are expected next week.

"NASCAR will discuss early next week if there will be any additional penalties assessed to these three teams," said an official statement.

Front Row Motorsports' Travis Kvapil was the fastest of the non-guaranteed drivers in 28th, while Tony Raines, Brian Keselowski and Mike Skinner failed to make the field.

Pos  Driver              Team/Car                     Time     Gap
 1.  Kurt Busch          Penske Dodge                 38.156s
 2.  David Reutimann     Waltrip Toyota               38.159s  + 0.003s
 3.  Matt Kenseth        Roush Fenway Ford            38.172s  + 0.016s
 4.  Brian Vickers       Red Bull Toyota              38.266s  + 0.110s
 5.  Regan Smith         Furniture Row Chevrolet      38.378s  + 0.222s
 6.  Tony Stewart        Stewart Haas Chevrolet       38.384s  + 0.228s
 7.  Greg Biffle         Roush Fenway Ford            38.389s  + 0.233s
 8.  Kasey Kahne         Red Bull Toyota              38.393s  + 0.237s
 9.  Paul Menard         Childress Chevrolet          38.403s  + 0.247s
10.  Denny Hamlin        Gibbs Toyota                 38.413s  + 0.257s
11.  Martin Truex Jr     Waltrip Toyota               38.422s  + 0.266s
12.  Landon Cassill      Phoenix Chevrolet            38.455s  + 0.299s
13.  Ryan Newman         Stewart Haas Chevrolet       38.456s  + 0.300s
14.  Jamie McMurray      Earnhardt Ganassi Chevrolet  38.471s  + 0.315s
15.  Dale Earnhardt Jr   Hendrick Chevrolet           38.476s  + 0.320s
16.  Bobby Labonte       JTG Daugherty Toyota         38.490s  + 0.334s
17.  Trevor Bayne        Wood Brothers Ford           38.496s  + 0.340s
18.  Marcos Ambrose      Petty Ford                   38.498s  + 0.342s
19.  Mark Martin         Hendrick Chevrolet           38.509s  + 0.353s
20.  David Ragan         Roush Fenway Ford            38.558s  + 0.402s
21.  Jimmie Johnson      Hendrick Chevrolet           38.571s  + 0.415s
22.  Kevin Harvick       Childress Chevrolet          38.571s  + 0.415s
23.  Carl Edwards        Roush Fenway Ford            38.585s  + 0.429s
24.  Kyle Busch          Gibbs Toyota                 38.592s  + 0.436s
25.  Juan Pablo Montoya  Earnhardt Ganassi Chevrolet  38.595s  + 0.439s
26.  AJ Allmendinger     Petty Ford                   38.604s  + 0.448s
27.  Clint Bowyer        Childress Chevrolet          38.626s  + 0.470s
28.  Travis Kvapil       Front Row Ford               38.664s  + 0.508s
29.  Joe Nemechek        NEMCO Toyota                 38.747s  + 0.591s
30.  Joey Logano         Gibbs Toyota                 38.762s  + 0.606s
31.  Jeff Gordon         Hendrick Chevrolet           38.770s  + 0.614s
32.  David Stremme       Inception Chevrolet          38.784s  + 0.628s
33.  Jeff Burton         Childress Chevrolet          38.803s  + 0.647s
34.  JJ Yeley            Whitney Chevrolet            38.855s  + 0.699s
35.  Mike Bliss          FAS Lane Ford                38.866s  + 0.710s
36.  Andy Lally          TRG Chevrolet                38.966s  + 0.810s
37.  Robby Gordon        Gordon Dodge                 38.985s  + 0.829s
38.  Michael McDowell    HP Toyota                    39.009s  + 0.853s
39.  Casey Mears         Germain Toyota               39.015s  + 0.859s
40.  David Gilliland     Front Row Ford               39.037s  + 0.881s
41.  Brad Keselowski     Penske Dodge                 39.093s  + 0.937s
42.  Dave Blaney         Baldwin Chevrolet            39.417s  + 1.261s
43.  Scott Riggs         Whitney Chevrolet            39.177s  + 1.021s

Did not qualify:

     Tony Raines         Front Row Ford               39.185s  + 1.029s
     Brian Keselowski    K-Automotive Dodge           39.460s  + 1.304s
     Mike Skinner        Germain Toyota               39.661s  + 1.505s