Newman on Lowe's Cup pole

Newman set a fastest lap of 29.140 seconds at an average speed of 185.312 mph, edging teammate Kurt Busch by just 0.039 seconds. It is Newman's sixth career pole at Lowe's and his second of the season.

"It was a good run," said Newman. "It's very gratifying. We've been working so hard to get where we thought we could've been. We didn't do a qualifying run in practice and that takes some confidence away, but maybe not trying so hard was a good thing tonight."

Newman's pole position means that Roger Penske's cars will be starting from first in both Memorial Weekend events in the US, as Helio Castroneves is on the pole for Sunday's Indy 500.

Busch came close to knock down his teammate from pole position but his effort came short in the end. The 2003 Nextel Cup Champion was happy for his team although he felt he didn't get the most out of his qualifying run.

"We were hanging on there, a little bit tight here and a little loose there," said Busch. "I just came a little bit shy. I felt like I gave a little bit too much up.

"It's going to be a long race and starting at daytime takes a whole different set-up and then a whole different set-up at night. We hope to blend those two together to be ok when we need to and to be strong at the end."

Elliot Sadler, who had been fastest in practice in the afternoon, completed a Dodge sweep of the top three spots in qualifying with a lap of 29.189 seconds which had him on provisional pole for a while, until Newman ran half a tenth quicker.

"My run was kind of a bittersweet one," Sadler said. "We've been very fast all day long, fastest in practice. I just drove it into turn one way too hard. I kind of lost a lot of time in the middle of [turns] one and two. It's a shame we only lost by four one-hundredths."

Dale Earnhardt Jr had his best qualifying of the year so far, setting the fourth fastest lap of the night with a 29.247 seconds effort, which lined him up as the best Chevrolet for Sunday's race.

Matt Kenseth carried on his good momentum from last weekend's All-Star Challenge, qualifying fifth, ahead of Denny Hamlin who sat on provisional pole for most of the session. The Joe Gibbs driver was the seventh car on the track and looked more at ease than in last week's event.

Casey Mears was fastest of the Hendrick cars in 16th, one place ahead of teammate Kyle Busch. Race favorite Jimmie Johnson was 21st, his worst qualifying result at Lowe's since his first victory at the track in 2003, while points-leader Jeff Gordon was a shocking 32nd.

Juan Pablo Montoya qualified 20th and coincidentally he will share the tenth row of the grid with David Gilliland. The Colombian made contact with the Yates driver in the first corner of the Nextel Open last week.

"It didn't feel as good as practice," Montoya said after his run. "I think the car should be pretty good in the race. This is a new car and it showed a lot of potential in the test so I'm looking forward to it."

Dave Blaney was fastest among the Toyotas and also the quickest of those having to qualify on speed, finishing eighth. Both Red Bull Camrys also made the field, with Brian Vickers 26th and AJ Allmendinger in 29th.

The former Champ Car star was not completely happy with his run though, as he had tested at the track extensively two weeks ago and also raced in the Nextel Open last week.

"Honestly I'm still a little disappointed about where we ended up and how we did," said Allmendinger. "The early draw killed us for sure. I think if we'd have ran as late as some of these guys we'd have been up there further. The lap felt okay and wasn't anything fantastic."

Michael Waltrip had a qualifying nightmare once again, crashing on his second lap, while his teammate David Reutimann also crashed before setting a time.

Both drivers won't be starting the race, but their teammate Dale Jarrett will, the former Cup champion ending a surprising 23rd, which is his best qualifying result of the season thus far.

Paul Menard, Ward Burton, Kevin Lepage and Mike Bliss were the other four drivers who did not qualify for Sunday's 600-mile race.

Pos  Driver              Make        Speed     Time
 1.  Ryan Newman         Dodge       185.312   29.140
 2.  Kurt Busch          Dodge       185.065   29.179 + 0.039
 3.  Elliott Sadler      Dodge       185.001   29.189 + 0.049
 4.  Dale Earnhardt Jr   Chevrolet   184.634   29.247 + 0.107
 5.  Matt Kenseth        Ford        184.231   29.311 + 0.171
 6.  Denny Hamlin        Chevrolet   184.225   29.312 + 0.172
 7.  Ricky Rudd          Ford        183.955   29.355 + 0.215
 8.  Dave Blaney         Toyota      183.861   29.370 + 0.230
 9.  Bobby Labonte       Dodge       183.536   29.422 + 0.282
10.  David Stremme       Dodge       183.530   29.423 + 0.283
11.  Mark Martin         Chevrolet   183.443   29.437 + 0.297
12.  J.J. Yeley          Chevrolet   183.312   29.458 + 0.318
13.  David Ragan         Ford        183.243   29.469 + 0.329
14.  Tony Stewart        Chevrolet   183.094   29.493 + 0.353
15.  Scott Riggs         Dodge       183.014   29.506 + 0.366
16.  Casey Mears         Chevrolet   182.890   29.526 + 0.386
17.  Kyle Busch          Chevrolet   182.698   29.557 + 0.417
18.  Kasey Kahne         Dodge       182.698   29.557 + 0.417
19.  David Gilliland     Ford        182.587   29.575 + 0.435
20.  Juan Montoya        Dodge       182.562   29.579 + 0.439
21.  Jimmie Johnson      Chevrolet   182.525   29.585 + 0.445
22.  Bill Elliott        Ford        182.426   29.601 + 0.461
23.  Dale Jarrett        Toyota      182.389   29.607 + 0.467
24.  Jeremy Mayfield     Toyota      182.303   29.621 + 0.481
25.  Jeff Burton         Chevrolet   182.285   29.624 + 0.484
26.  Brian Vickers       Toyota      182.272   29.626 + 0.486
27.  Kevin Harvick       Chevrolet   182.266   29.627 + 0.487
28.  Jamie McMurray      Ford        182.248   29.630 + 0.490
29.  A.J. Allmendinger   Toyota      182.248   29.630 + 0.490
30.  Sterling Marlin     Chevrolet   182.242   29.631 + 0.491
31.  Martin Truex Jr     Chevrolet   182.205   29.637 + 0.497
32.  Jeff Gordon         Chevrolet   181.977   29.674 + 0.534
33.  Joe Nemechek        Chevrolet   181.922   29.683 + 0.543
34.  Reed Sorenson       Dodge       181.812   29.701 + 0.561
35.  Robby Gordon        Ford        181.324   29.781 + 0.641
36.  Kyle Petty          Dodge       181.038   29.828 + 0.688
37.  Tony Raines         Chevrolet   180.814   29.865 + 0.725
38.  Greg Biffle         Ford        180.620   29.897 + 0.757
39.  Carl Edwards        Ford        180.445   29.926 + 0.786
40.  Johnny Sauter       Chevrolet   179.599   30.067 + 0.927
41.  Clint Bowyer        Chevrolet   175.461   30.776 + 1.636
42.  Jeff Green          Chevrolet      -        -       -
43.  Kenny Wallace       Chevrolet   182.229   29.633 + 0.493