Ragan claims maiden Cup pole

Ragan bumped Edwards from pole after running last in the order to complete his qualifying lap, having set the fastest practice time on Thursday afternoon. On his flying lap he was able to run nearly two tenths of a second faster than his team-mate's benchmark, setting a time of 28.448 seconds, at an average speed of 189.820 mph.

"I don't know how we pulled that off but it was really fast," said Ragan who is still looking for his first victory in what will be his 153rd Cup race driving a Roush Ford Fusion. "I have to give credit to our team and [crew chief] Drew Blickensderfer who made a gutsy call.

"We made our last qualifying run in practice and we decided to change the car up a little bit. It stuck and did what it needed to do. I really like this place, it is a fun place to come and it is cool to get a pole here. Hopefully we can turn that into a good run tomorrow."

Edwards, a three-time winner at Texas, starts Saturday night's race as a clear favourite along with his team-mates, all having shown great consistency in race trim during practice. Behind him the Richard Childress Chevrolet of Clint Bowyer was third, ahead of a third Roush Ford of Matt Kenseth while Regan Smith continued to impress with his fifth top-five start in seven races this season.

"We are fast in practice and have three of the top four in qualifying that are Fords," said Edwards. "We are as good now on the 1.5 miles, almost as good as we were in 2005 when we were lights out and won 15 total races or something like that. We are close to that form again and that is good."

Reigning champion Jimmie Johnson (Hendrick) was sixth, ahead of Richard Petty's Marcos Ambrose and the fastest Toyota of Joe Gibbs Racing's Joey Logano. Greg Biffle's ninth place locked all Roush cars in the top 10, while last year's Texas winner Denny Hamlin was only 23rd.

Michael McDowell was the fastest of the non-guaranteed drivers in 20th. Travis Kvapil failed to make the field.

Pos  Driver              Team/Car                     Time     Gap
 1.  David Ragan         Roush Fenway Ford            28.448s
 2.  Carl Edwards        Roush Fenway Ford            28.644s  + 0.196s
 3.  Clint Bowyer        Childress Chevrolet          28.688s  + 0.240s
 4.  Matt Kenseth        Roush Fenway Ford            28.693s  + 0.245s
 5.  Regan Smith         Furniture Row Chevrolet      28.731s  + 0.283s
 6.  Jimmie Johnson      Hendrick Chevrolet           28.760s  + 0.312s
 7.  Marcos Ambrose      Petty Ford                   28.776s  + 0.328s
 8.  Joey Logano         Gibbs Toyota                 28.787s  + 0.339s
 9.  Greg Biffle         Roush Fenway Ford            28.792s  + 0.344s
10.  Kurt Busch          Penske Dodge                 28.815s  + 0.367s
11.  Kyle Busch          Gibbs Toyota                 28.820s  + 0.372s
12.  Jeff Burton         Childress Chevrolet          28.823s  + 0.375s
13.  Kasey Kahne         Red Bull Toyota              28.841s  + 0.393s
14.  Juan Pablo Montoya  Earnhardt Ganassi Chevrolet  28.850s  + 0.402s
15.  AJ Allmendinger     Petty Ford                   28.850s  + 0.402s
16.  Ryan Newman         Stewart Haas Chevrolet       28.870s  + 0.422s
17.  Jamie McMurray      Earnhardt Ganassi Chevrolet  28.870s  + 0.422s
18.  Trevor Bayne        Wood Brothers Ford           28.874s  + 0.426s
19.  Paul Menard         Childress Chevrolet          28.893s  + 0.445s
20.  Michael McDowell    HP Toyota                    28.902s  + 0.454s
21.  Mark Martin         Hendrick Chevrolet           28.905s  + 0.457s
22.  Casey Mears         Germain Toyota               28.933s  + 0.485s
23.  Denny Hamlin        Gibbs Toyota                 28.949s  + 0.501s
24.  Landon Cassill      Phoenix Chevrolet            28.956s  + 0.508s
25.  David Reutimann     Waltrip Toyota               28.969s  + 0.521s
26.  Tony Stewart        Stewart Haas Chevrolet       28.976s  + 0.528s
27.  Brad Keselowski     Penske Dodge                 29.041s  + 0.593s
28.  Dale Earnhardt Jr   Hendrick Chevrolet           29.042s  + 0.594s
29.  Kevin Harvick       Childress Chevrolet          29.045s  + 0.597s
30.  Brian Vickers       Red Bull Toyota              29.052s  + 0.604s
31.  Martin Truex Jr     Waltrip Toyota               29.068s  + 0.620s
32.  Jeff Gordon         Hendrick Chevrolet           29.098s  + 0.650s
33.  David Starr         Leavine Fenton Ford          29.098s  + 0.650s
34.  Bobby Labonte       JTG Daugherty Toyota         29.108s  + 0.660s
35.  JJ Yeley            Whitney Chevrolet            29.143s  + 0.695s
36.  Mike Skinner        Germain Toyota               29.170s  + 0.722s
37.  Joe Nemechek        NEMCO Toyota                 29.198s  + 0.750s
38.  Dave Blaney         Baldwin Chevrolet            29.325s  + 0.877s
39.  Robby Gordon        Gordon Dodge                 29.409s  + 0.961s
40.  David Gilliland     Front Row Ford               29.462s  + 1.014s
41.  Ken Schrader        FAS Lane Ford                29.772s  + 1.324s
42.  Tony Raines         Front Row Ford               30.147s  + 1.699s
43.  Andy Lally          TRG Chevrolet                29.383s  + 0.935s

Did not qualify:

     Travis Kvapil       Front Row Ford               29.446s  + 0.998s