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Newman claims Lowe's Cup pole

Ryan Newman claimed his fifth Nextel Cup pole position of the season at Lowe's Motor Speedway after setting the fastest lap in the late stages of qualifying for the Bank of America 500

The Penske driver set a time of 28.512 seconds at an average speed of 189.394 mph, knocking pre-race favourite Jimmie Johnson off pole position by just sixty hundredths of a second. Newman's pole is his seventh in 14 Nextel Cup starts at the 'Beast of the Southeast'.

"Qualifying was a matter of beating the 48 car (Johnson)," said Newman. "I had the advantage of knowing what he ran and I pushed my car to what I thought I needed to. It was a great lap for us; it was smooth. If I had to do it all over again I'd like to say I could do it better. Maybe not."

Johnson backed up his favouritism for this weekend by getting a front-row starting position for Saturday night's race. He was one of the last drivers in the queue for qualifying and benefitted from that, but he had already showed his strength in practice by going quickest.

"The car was maybe a little on the free side," Johnson said. "But I really don't think I left anything out there. I'm real proud of the lap we put in. We had a great run. We've had a very smooth day in the Busch car and in the Cup car and I'm looking forward to a good weekend."

Bobby Labonte held provisional pole for a while but his time got beaten later. Before that, it had been Chase leader Jeff Gordon sitting on provisional pole, having been the seventh car to complete his qualifying run when conditions were far from their best.

"I wasn't expecting to put up a qualifying lap like that," said Gordon. "I'm excited. I think it was a good run that kept us in the top ten. It was a much bigger pickup (from practice) than we thought."

Kasey Kahne, winner of both of last year's races at Lowe's Motor Speedway had a good qualifying as well, taking fifth on the grid in his No. 9 car which is among the few Dodges running the old nose as the team has struggled to make the new one work.

Another former Lowe's winner, Jamie McMurray, will share the third row of the grid with him.

Chase contenders Matt Kenseth and Kurt Busch will share the fourth row of the grid, having run well in practice as well. Denny Hamlin and Kurt Busch qualified 11th and 13th while Carl Edwards was 17th. The rest of the title contenders will start from outside the top 20.

Michael Waltrip made the race again and will start from the tenth row of the grid beside his teammate David Reutimann. However, the third car of his team driven by Dale Jarrett failed to make the race, along with Joe Nemechek, Brian Vickers, Carl Long and Kirk Shelmerdine.

Also, for the fourth consecutive time, former IRL and Indy 500 Champion Sam Hornish Jr failed to be quick enough to put his No. 06 Penske in the starting line-up for his Nextel Cup debut. He was 47th fastest in qualifying among 49 drivers.

Pos  Driver               Make        Speed     Time
 1.  Ryan Newman          Dodge       189.394   28.512
 2.  Jimmie Johnson       Chevrolet   188.990   28.573 + 0.061
 3.  Bobby Labonte        Dodge       188.363   28.668 + 0.156
 4.  Jeff Gordon          Chevrolet   188.298   28.678 + 0.166
 5.  Kasey Kahne          Dodge       188.088   28.710 + 0.198
 6.  Jamie McMurray       Ford        188.075   28.712 + 0.200
 7.  Matt Kenseth         Ford        188.016   28.721 + 0.209
 8.  Kurt Busch           Dodge       187.898   28.739 + 0.227
 9.  Casey Mears          Chevrolet   187.852   28.746 + 0.234
10.  Greg Biffle          Ford        187.585   28.787 + 0.275
11.  Denny Hamlin         Chevrolet   187.402   28.815 + 0.303
12.  Mark Martin          Chevrolet   187.214   28.844 + 0.332
13.  Kyle Busch           Chevrolet   187.188   28.848 + 0.336
14.  Scott Riggs          Dodge       187.078   28.865 + 0.353
15.  Ward Burton          Chevrolet   186.916   28.890 + 0.378
16.  Elliott Sadler       Dodge       186.883   28.895 + 0.383
17.  Paul Menard          Chevrolet   186.883   28.895 + 0.383
18.  Carl Edwards         Ford        186.819   28.905 + 0.393
19.  Michael Waltrip      Toyota      186.761   28.914 + 0.402
20.  David Reutimann      Toyota      186.748   28.916 + 0.404
21.  David Gilliland      Ford        186.703   28.923 + 0.411
22.  Dale Earnhardt Jr    Chevrolet   186.516   28.952 + 0.440
23.  Johnny Sauter        Chevrolet   186.477   28.958 + 0.446
24.  Kevin Harvick        Chevrolet   186.419   28.967 + 0.455
25.  Clint Bowyer         Chevrolet   186.374   28.974 + 0.462
26.  Reed Sorenson        Dodge       186.322   28.982 + 0.470
27.  Jeff Burton          Chevrolet   186.149   29.009 + 0.497
28.  David Stremme        Dodge       186.034   29.027 + 0.515
29.  Tony Stewart         Chevrolet   185.842   29.057 + 0.545
30.  A.J. Allmendinger    Toyota      185.733   29.074 + 0.562
31.  David Ragan          Ford        185.701   29.079 + 0.567
32.  Martin Truex Jr      Chevrolet   185.637   29.089 + 0.577
33.  Ricky Rudd           Ford        185.490   29.112 + 0.600
34.  Dave Blaney          Toyota      185.452   29.118 + 0.606
35.  Bill Elliott         Ford        185.433   29.121 + 0.609
36.  Juan Montoya         Dodge       185.427   29.122 + 0.610
37.  Jeff Green           Chevrolet   184.887   29.207 + 0.695
38.  Jeremy Mayfield      Toyota      184.672   29.241 + 0.729
39.  J.J. Yeley           Chevrolet   184.628   29.248 + 0.736
40.  Robby Gordon         Ford        184.559   29.259 + 0.747
41.  Tony Raines          Chevrolet   183.874   29.368 + 0.856
42.  Kyle Petty           Dodge       183.617   29.409 + 0.897
43.  John Andretti        Dodge       184.508   29.267 + 0.755

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