Bowyer claims maiden Cup pole

Bowyer set a fastest lap of 29.806 seconds at an average speed of 164.987 mph driving his No. 07 Richard Childress Chevrolet Imapala SS.

He nervously watched how two-time winner at Darlington Greg Biffle got close to his lap time at the end of the session, but was relieved to edge him by just twenty thousandths of a second.

"I think it was a really good lap, specially after practice," said Bowyer. "In practice I got into the wall two or three times and was a little bit nervous going into qualifying. I didn't know quite how it was going to be."

"[My car] was a little bit free off from [turn] four coming to the green and I was like 'Oh boy, what do we do when we get down to [turn] one? Do we go forward or not?' Fortunately it stuck and I was able to go pretty good."

The Roush Fenway drivers enjoyed a great qualifying session with three of them finishing in the top four. Behind Biffle who had his best qualifying effort of the year so far, Jamie McMurray and Carl Edwards ended up third and fourth.

Kasey Kahne, who had claimed the last three pole positions at Darlington, finished the session in fifth on his #9 Evernham Dodge Avenger and was the last driver able to lap below the 30-second mark, with a lap of 29.972 seconds at an average speed of 164.073 mph.

Kenny Wallace was a surprise sixth and fastest among the drivers who needed the make the race on pure qualifying pace. He kept the fans on their feet after brushing the wall out of turn 4 while setting his time in his first lap.

Points leader Jeff Gordon will line up tenth for Saturday's race, having his worst qualifying result so far with the Car of Tomorrow.

His teammates Casey Mears and two-time winner at Darlington Jimmie Johnson will start just behind him from the sixth row of the grid.

Rookie David Reutimann was fastest among the Toyotas in 14th, and also the only driver to make the field from Michael Waltrip Racing, as his boss failed to make the grid for the 10th consecutive time and Dale Jarrett wasn't fast enough either.

Behind Reutimann was Brian Vickers who returns after having failed to qualify for the last three races.

AJ Allmendinger will start the race from 20th marking only the second time this year that both Red Bull cars are on the grid.

"It helps when you close your eyes and you just hold your breath," said Allmendinger after his lap. "My God, I'm shaking still. I don't even know what to say about this place, honestly. I had to hold my breath. I got out of the car and I was shaking, trying to get my breath back."

Juan Pablo Montoya had his worst qualifying result of the season despite having run well during practice. He will line up 41st on the grid on his debut at Darlington.

"It was just too loose," Montoya said after his run. "It was good in practice and we even tightened it up a little bit. In the middle of 1 and 2 when I went to get out of the gas it just got out of my hands and was just way too loose."

Six drivers failed to make the field, one of them being Jeremy Mayfield who was bumped out of the grid in the closing minutes by Kenny Wallace. Track-record holder Ward Burton also failed to make the cut, as well as Evernham's Scott Riggs.

Pos  Driver              Make        Speed     Time
 1.  Clint Bowyer        Chevrolet   164.987   29.806
 2.  Greg Biffle         Ford        164.876   29.826 + 0.020
 3.  Jamie McMurray      Ford        164.430   29.907 + 0.101
 4.  Carl Edwards        Ford        164.314   29.928 + 0.122
 5.  Kasey Kahne         Dodge       164.073   29.972 + 0.166
 6.  Kenny Wallace       Chevrolet   163.876   30.008 + 0.202
 7.  Denny Hamlin        Chevrolet   163.838   30.015 + 0.209
 8.  Ken Schrader        Ford        163.723   30.036 + 0.230
 9.  Kevin Harvick       Chevrolet   163.713   30.038 + 0.232
10.  Jeff Gordon         Chevrolet   163.680   30.044 + 0.238
11.  Casey Mears         Chevrolet   163.299   30.114 + 0.308
12.  Jimmie Johnson      Chevrolet   163.289   30.116 + 0.310
13.  Bobby Labonte       Dodge       163.186   30.135 + 0.329
14.  David Reutimann     Toyota      163.175   30.137 + 0.331
15.  Brian Vickers       Toyota      163.153   30.141 + 0.335
16.  Reed Sorenson       Dodge       163.105   30.150 + 0.344
17.  Elliott Sadler      Dodge       163.045   30.161 + 0.355
18.  Kurt Busch          Dodge       163.002   30.169 + 0.363
19.  Johnny Sauter       Chevrolet   162.948   30.179 + 0.373
20.  AJ Allmendinger     Toyota      162.915   30.185 + 0.379
21.  Dale Earnhardt Jr   Chevrolet   162.807   30.205 + 0.399
22.  JJ Yeley            Chevrolet   162.791   30.208 + 0.402
23.  Paul Menard         Chevrolet   162.786   30.209 + 0.403
24.  David Ragan         Ford        162.630   30.238 + 0.432
25.  Martin Truex Jr     Chevrolet   162.619   30.240 + 0.434
26.  Tony Stewart        Chevrolet   162.555   30.252 + 0.446
27.  Dave Blaney         Toyota      162.452   30.271 + 0.465
28.  Sterling Marlin     Chevrolet   162.356   30.289 + 0.483
29.  Ryan Newman         Dodge       162.276   30.304 + 0.498
30.  David Stremme       Dodge       162.260   30.307 + 0.501
31.  Matt Kenseth        Ford        161.934   30.368 + 0.562
32.  Tony Raines         Chevrolet   161.864   30.381 + 0.575
33.  Robby Gordon        Ford        161.742   30.404 + 0.598
34.  Jeff Burton         Chevrolet   161.545   30.441 + 0.635
35.  Joe Nemechek        Chevrolet   161.503   30.449 + 0.643
36.  Kyle Busch          Chevrolet   161.328   30.482 + 0.676
37.  Mark Martin         Chevrolet   161.317   30.484 + 0.678
38.  David Gilliland     Ford        161.006   30.543 + 0.737
39.  Jeff Green          Chevrolet   160.869   30.569 + 0.763
40.  Ricky Rudd          Ford        160.381   30.662 + 0.856
41.  Juan Montoya        Dodge       160.057   30.724 + 0.918
42.  Kyle Petty          Dodge       159.548   30.822 + 1.016
43.  Kevin Lepage        Dodge       162.329   30.294 + 0.488