Kahne takes pole at Michigan

The Richard Petty Motorsports driver made the headlines again, this time with his on-track performance after revealing earlier this week that he will drive for Red Bull Racing Team next season before joining Hendrick Motorsports in 2012.

Kahne beat the previous benchmark set by his future teammate Jimmie Johnson with a laptime of 38.456 seconds at an average speed of 187.183 mph, taking his second pole at Michigan, where he won from the front of the field in 2006.

He made the most of the improving track conditions as he was among the later runners, thanks to a good draw that saw him complete his qualifying effort as the 34th driver in the order.

"It was a good lap, it felt really good," said Kahne. "I blew through turns one and two and felt really good. I got to turn three and I wasn't too sure. I pushed the nose a little. I felt like one and two was where we got the pole because we were really good there.

"I didn't really think it was a pole lap though. I was dominant until I got to three but then I felt that I wasn't too great in turn three. I figured it would be a pretty decent lap but not pole, but then it turned out it was. I think it just shows how good our car was in [turns] one and two because that is where we got all the time."

Johnson claimed his fourth front-row start in the past six races, beating Clint Bowyer, who had been at the top of the speed charts before him. The Richard Childress Racing driver ended up third, sharing the second row of the grid with Stewart-Haas's Tony Stewart, while Juan Pablo Montoya rounded out another strong qualifying with fifth, the fourth consecutive top-five start for the Earnhardt Ganassi driver.

The Colombian held provisional pole for a while after going out early in the order, beating Roush Fenway's Greg Biffle who had been at the top of the board earlier. They will share the third row of the grid, ahead of Biffle's teammate Matt Kenseth, as the Roush outfit looks for a second win of the season and a record-breaking 12th at Michigan for Jack Roush, who is attending a race for the first time since his plane crash 18 days ago.

Points leader Kevin Harvick qualified seventh, while his RCR teammate Jeff Burton, who had paced practice earlier in the day, only managed eleventh fastest despite a late qualifying draw, ending up behind the fastest Toyota of Martin Truex Jr who was ninth, and Kahne's teammate Menard, who rounded out the top-ten.

Rookie Landon Cassill was the fastest of the non-guaranteed drivers in 15th for Phoenix Racing, while Scott Riggs, Casey Mears, Mike Bliss and JJ Yeley failed to make the field.

Pos  Driver              Car        Speed    Time     Gap
 1.  Kasey Kahne         Ford       187.183  38.465s
 2.  Jimmie Johnson      Chevrolet  187.086  38.485s  + 0.020s
 3.  Clint Bowyer        Chevrolet  186.577  38.590s  + 0.125s
 4.  Tony Stewart        Chevrolet  186.572  38.591s  + 0.126s
 5.  Juan Montoya        Chevrolet  186.461  38.614s  + 0.149s
 6.  Greg Biffle         Ford       186.350  38.637s  + 0.172s
 7.  Matt Kenseth        Ford       186.268  38.654s  + 0.189s
 8.  Kevin Harvick       Chevrolet  186.176  38.673s  + 0.208s
 9.  Martin Truex Jr     Toyota     186.167  38.675s  + 0.210s
10.  Paul Menard         Ford       185.912  38.728s  + 0.263s
11.  Jeff Burton         Chevrolet  185.730  38.766s  + 0.301s
12.  Mark Martin         Chevrolet  185.715  38.769s  + 0.304s
13.  Kurt Busch          Dodge      185.596  38.794s  + 0.329s
14.  David Reutimann     Toyota     185.596  38.794s  + 0.329s
15.  Landon Cassill      Chevrolet  185.467  38.821s  + 0.356s
16.  A.J. Allmendinger   Ford       185.419  38.831s  + 0.366s
17.  Ryan Newman         Chevrolet  185.333  38.849s  + 0.384s
18.  Kyle Busch          Toyota     185.290  38.858s  + 0.393s
19.  Jamie McMurray      Chevrolet  185.276  38.861s  + 0.396s
20.  Regan Smith         Chevrolet  185.071  38.904s  + 0.439s
21.  Max Papis           Toyota     184.952  38.929s  + 0.464s
22.  Joe Nemechek        Toyota     184.876  38.945s  + 0.480s
23.  Elliott Sadler      Ford       184.867  38.947s  + 0.482s
24.  Carl Edwards        Ford       184.777  38.966s  + 0.501s
25.  Patrick Carpentier  Ford       184.729  38.976s  + 0.511s
26.  Brad Keselowski     Dodge      184.634  38.996s  + 0.531s
27.  Joey Logano         Toyota     184.615  39.000s  + 0.535s
28.  Sam Hornish Jr      Dodge      184.582  39.007s  + 0.542s
29.  David Ragan         Ford       184.535  39.017s  + 0.552s
30.  Bill Elliott        Ford       184.431  39.039s  + 0.574s
31.  Scott Speed         Toyota     184.417  39.042s  + 0.577s
32.  Travis Kvapil       Ford       184.341  39.058s  + 0.593s
33.  Denny Hamlin        Toyota     183.885  39.155s  + 0.690s
34.  Reed Sorenson       Toyota     183.870  39.158s  + 0.693s
35.  Robby Gordon        Toyota     183.744  39.185s  + 0.720s
36.  Jeff Gordon         Chevrolet  183.439  39.250s  + 0.785s
37.  Marcos Ambrose      Toyota     183.388  39.261s  + 0.796s
38.  Dale Earnhardt Jr   Chevrolet  183.337  39.272s  + 0.807s
39.  Tony Raines         Ford       182.764  39.395s  + 0.930s
40.  Bobby Labonte       Chevrolet  182.454  39.462s  + 0.997s
41.  P.J. Jones          Toyota     180.555  39.877s  + 1.412s
42.  David Gilliland     Ford       179.798  40.045s  + 1.580s
43.  Michael McDowell    Toyota     183.257  39.289s  + 0.824s