Red Bull sweeps front row at Chicago

Vickers backed up his performance from practice earlier in the day, when he had been quickest. With cooler track temperatures into the evening he was able to go nearly sixth tenths of a second quicker, beating the benchmark previously set by last year's winner Kyle Busch by more than three tenths.

"It's fantastic," said Vickers after claiming his fifth pole position of the season. "Everyone at Red Bull did a fantastic job. We unloaded with a phenomenal car this morning and all that we were lacking was drive off [the corners]. They decided to go in a different direction and they nailed it.

"I know we have a very competitive car in race trim and qualifying trim. When they fixed the drive off it was still turning good. It was a good time."

Coming closest to Vickers was his team-mate Scott Speed, who was the final qualifier of the day. He was around two tenths off pole position, but still quick enough to sweep the front row for Red Bull for the first time in the squad's short history in the Sprint Cup Series.

"Brian's lap was really incredible and I didn't think we had a shot to beat that," said Speed, also the fastest of the non-guaranteed drivers. "I knew we had a chance to be at the front but we also have to make the race so you gotta be smart about it. It was a nice, solid lap, the car was handling great. It's a good start to the weekend anyway."

Jimmie Johnson, never a winner at Chicagoland, was the fastest Chevrolet and he will see the green flag wave on Saturday afternoon from the inside of the second row of the grid, which he will share with Denny Hamlin, the fastest Toyota driver.

Clint Bowyer rounded out the top-five ahead of Kyle Busch and Jeff Gordon, while Bill Elliot was the fastest Ford qualifier in eighth place ahead of the Waltrip cars of David Reutimann and Marcos Ambrose, who brushed the wall on his lap. Behind them Reed Sorenson was the fastest Dodge in eleventh.

Many drivers spent the afternoon practice session working mainly on race trim as there is a high chance of rain for Friday, when two further sessions are scheduled ahead of Saturday night's race.

Mike Wallace, Dexter Bean and Tony Raines failed to qualify.

Pos  Driver             Car        Speed    Time     Gap
 1.  Brian Vickers      Toyota     184.162  29.322s
 2.  Scott Speed        Toyota     182.958  29.515s  + 0.193s
 3.  Jimmie Johnson     Chevrolet  182.217  29.635s  + 0.313s
 4.  Denny Hamlin       Toyota     182.162  29.644s  + 0.322s
 5.  Clint Bowyer       Chevrolet  182.100  29.654s  + 0.332s
 6.  Kyle Busch         Toyota     181.873  29.691s  + 0.369s
 7.  Jeff Gordon        Chevrolet  181.653  29.727s  + 0.405s
 8.  Bill Elliott       Ford       181.476  29.756s  + 0.434s
 9.  David Reutimann    Toyota     181.385  29.771s  + 0.449s
10.  Marcos Ambrose     Toyota     181.378  29.772s  + 0.450s
11.  Reed Sorenson      Dodge      181.275  29.789s  + 0.467s
12.  Ryan Newman        Chevrolet  181.220  29.798s  + 0.476s
13.  Dale Earnhardt Jr  Chevrolet  181.220  29.798s  + 0.476s
14.  Mark Martin        Chevrolet  181.050  29.826s  + 0.504s
15.  Kasey Kahne        Dodge      181.020  29.831s  + 0.509s
16.  Sam Hornish Jr     Dodge      180.977  29.838s  + 0.516s
17.  David Ragan        Ford       180.959  29.841s  + 0.519s
18.  Dave Blaney        Toyota     180.723  29.880s  + 0.558s
19.  Juan Montoya       Chevrolet  180.687  29.886s  + 0.564s
20.  AJ Allmendinger    Dodge      180.566  29.906s  + 0.584s
21.  Martin Truex Jr    Chevrolet  180.548  29.909s  + 0.587s
22.  Kurt Busch         Dodge      180.433  29.928s  + 0.606s
23.  Jeff Burton        Chevrolet  180.367  29.939s  + 0.617s
24.  Joey Logano        Toyota     180.343  29.943s  + 0.621s
25.  Carl Edwards       Ford       180.312  29.948s  + 0.626s
26.  Mike Bliss         Dodge      180.132  29.978s  + 0.656s
27.  Paul Menard        Ford       179.856  30.024s  + 0.702s
28.  Kevin Harvick      Chevrolet  179.790  30.035s  + 0.713s
29.  Brad Keselowski    Chevrolet  179.635  30.061s  + 0.739s
30.  Jamie McMurray     Ford       179.629  30.062s  + 0.740s
31.  Joe Nemechek       Toyota     179.473  30.088s  + 0.766s
32.  Tony Stewart       Chevrolet  179.348  30.109s  + 0.787s
33.  Matt Kenseth       Ford       179.348  30.109s  + 0.787s
34.  Elliott Sadler     Dodge      179.253  30.125s  + 0.803s
35.  Greg Biffle        Ford       179.217  30.131s  + 0.809s
36.  David Stremme      Dodge      179.098  30.151s  + 0.829s
37.  Michael Waltrip    Toyota     179.033  30.162s  + 0.840s
38.  Casey Mears        Chevrolet  179.027  30.163s  + 0.841s
39.  Mike Skinner       Toyota     178.838  30.195s  + 0.873s
40.  John Andretti      Chevrolet  178.731  30.213s  + 0.891s
41.  Robby Gordon       Toyota     178.341  30.279s  + 0.957s
42.  Bobby Labonte      Ford       177.276  30.461s  + 1.139s
43.  David Gilliland    Chevrolet  177.942  30.347s  + 1.025s

Did not qualify:

     Mike Wallace       Toyota     177.643  30.398s  + 1.076s
     Dexter Bean        Dodge      177.119  30.488s  + 1.166s
     Tony Raines        Dodge      177.026  30.504s  + 1.182s