Newman takes Atlanta Cup pole

Newman set a blistering pace in his run turning a lap of 193.124 mph and a lap time of 28.707 seconds in his No. 12 Alltel Dodge. He claimed his 38th career pole in 192 Nextel Cup starts.

Newman was the only driver to lap above 193 mph, his lap time being nearly two tenths of a second faster than the one from his front row partner Elliot Sadler, whose speed was 191.894 mph.

Despite his pace, he said however that his car suffered a small misfire when he started his qualifying run.

"That was a great run for the Alltel Dodge," Newman said. "I had a little miss in the engine. Seriously. It missed a little bit when I went from third to fourth gear. When I was in fourth at the end of the straightaway at the top of the rpm curve it messed a little bit again.

"I was very surprised as I saw the tag jumping. But the car got to the corners so fast that the Penske engine even with a little miss was still strong enough to get the job done."

Las Vegas winner Jimmie Johnson kept his momentum running to achieve his best qualifying of the season so far, lining up third with a lap of 28.907 and a speed of 191.787 mph.

Series points leader Mark Martin had yet more reason to think about his Bristol plans after qualifying an impressive fourth in his No. 01 U.S. Army Chevrolet. He was among the early runners in the qualifying order and stayed at the top of the speed charts for most of the session.

Jeff Gordon completed the top five finishing just nine thousands of a second from Martin's time and having a much better qualifying than in Vegas where he started from 36th on grid.

Last year's pole and race winner Kasey Kahne, who also started from pole at Vegas a week ago, could only manage 12th place behind both his Evernham teammates Elliot Sadler and Scott Riggs.

Juan Pablo Montoya was the top rookie qualifier again although he was probably left hoping for more after being fourth fastest in practice in his first visit to the 1.5-mile oval.

"I couldn't really attack the track at all. It was way too slick out there for us," he said "We had a really good balance this morning. We run really good and the grip just wasn't there as we expected."

The Colombian will line up sixteenth, far behind Ganassi teammate David Stremme who had another good qualifying, setting the seventh fastest lap of the session.

Toyota's struggle for speed in the 1.5-mile ovals continued this weekend. David Reutimann emerged as the fastest Camry driver in twenty-fourth more than half a second off the pace.

Reutimann's result was no consolation for team-owner Michael Waltrip who failed to qualify for the third time in sucession, while his other car driven by Dale Jarrett could not make the field based on speed.

He will however use the past champion's rule for the fourth time to take the last spot on the grid once again, hoping to keep himself in the top 35 on the owner points standings to avoid running out of guarantees to make the field from Martinsville onwards.

The Red Bull cars also had a mixed session with Brian Vickers making the field while teammate A.J Allmendinger failed to get a place on the grid again after blowing the engine on his first qualifying lap.

Besides Waltrip, another seven drivers failed to qualify for Sunday's race. Mike Bliss was the fastest of the 16 drivers that had to make the field based on their qualifying speed and will start from ninth in his first race of the season.

Qualifying times:

Pos  Driver              Make       Speed    Time
 1.  Ryan Newman         Dodge      193.124  28.707
 2.  Elliott Sadler      Dodge      191.894  28.891  + 0.184
 3.  Jimmie Johnson      Chevrolet  191.788  28.907  + 0.200
 4.  Mark Martin         Chevrolet  191.774  28.909  + 0.202
 5.  Jeff Gordon         Chevrolet  191.714  28.918  + 0.211
 6.  Bobby Labonte       Dodge      191.648  28.928  + 0.221
 7.  David Stremme       Dodge      191.509  28.949  + 0.242
 8.  Kyle Busch          Chevrolet  191.503  28.950  + 0.243
 9.  Mike Bliss          Dodge      191.100  29.011  + 0.304
10.  Scott Riggs         Dodge      190.916  29.039  + 0.332
11.  Reed Sorenson       Dodge      190.837  29.051  + 0.344
12.  Kasey Kahne         Dodge      190.686  29.074  + 0.367
13.  Tony Stewart        Chevrolet  190.594  29.088  + 0.381
14.  Carl Edwards        Ford       190.398  29.118  + 0.411
15.  Clint Bowyer        Chevrolet  190.372  29.122  + 0.415
16.  Juan Montoya        Dodge      190.293  29.134  + 0.427
17.  Kurt Busch          Dodge      190.189  29.150  + 0.443
18.  Martin Truex Jr.    Chevrolet  190.176  29.152  + 0.445
19.  Joe Nemechek        Chevrolet  189.954  29.186  + 0.479
20.  J.J. Yeley          Chevrolet  189.850  29.202  + 0.495
21.  Matt Kenseth        Ford       189.837  29.204  + 0.497
22.  Dale Earnhardt Jr.  Chevrolet  189.837  29.204  + 0.497
23.  Paul Menard         Chevrolet  189.818  29.207  + 0.500
24.  David Reutimann     Toyota     189.701  29.225  + 0.518
25.  Greg Biffle         Ford       189.564  29.246  + 0.539
26.  Johnny Sauter       Chevrolet  189.467  29.261  + 0.554
27.  David Gilliland     Ford       189.383  29.274  + 0.567
28.  Sterling Marlin     Chevrolet  189.105  29.317  + 0.610
29.  Ken Schrader        Ford       189.067  29.323  + 0.616
30.  Denny Hamlin        Chevrolet  188.841  29.358  + 0.651
31.  Brian Vickers       Toyota     188.828  29.360  + 0.653
32.  Jeff Burton         Chevrolet  188.495  29.412  + 0.705
33.  Tony Raines         Chevrolet  188.411  29.425  + 0.718
34.  Casey Mears         Chevrolet  188.360  29.433  + 0.726
35.  Dave Blaney         Toyota     188.302  29.442  + 0.735
36.  Kevin Harvick       Chevrolet  187.958  29.496  + 0.789
37.  Jamie McMurray      Ford       187.133  29.626  + 0.919
38.  David Ragan         Ford       185.753  29.846  + 1.139
39.  Robby Gordon        Ford       185.492  29.888  + 1.181
40.  Kyle Petty          Dodge      184.499  30.049  + 1.342
41.  Jeff Green          Chevrolet  184.364  30.071  + 1.364
42.  Ricky Rudd          Ford       183.515  30.210  + 1.503
43.  Dale Jarrett        Toyota     Ch'Pro.

Did not qualify:

     Scott Wimmer        Chevrolet  188.751  29.372  + 0.665
     Ward Burton         Chevrolet  188.623  29.392  + 0.685
     John Andretti       Dodge      188.015  29.487  + 0.780
     Michael Waltrip     Toyota     187.551  29.560  + 0.853
     Kenny Wallace       Chevrolet  187.519  29.565  + 0.858
     Kevin Lepage        Dodge      186.881  29.666  + 0.959
     Jeremy Mayfield     Toyota     185.437  29.897  + 1.190
     A.J. Allmendinger   Toyota     -        -       -