Vickers claims Michigan Cup pole

Vickers, who has yet to win a race this year, beat the previous benchmark set by veteran Mark Martin, with a lap of 38.453 seconds, at an average speed of 187.242 mph, running a completely new Toyota Camry built by his Red Bull team with its latest developments.

"We were good in practice but not great, made some changes, made it better and ended up on pole," said Vickers after his third consecutive pole at Michigan.

"Turns one and two were fantastic but turns three and four I felt like I left a little bit on the table. I know we could've run a faster lap because I over-drove the entry a little bit and that definitely hurt us but not enough that we could still sit on pole."

Martin, who won at Michigan back in June and leads all active drivers for victories at the two-mile oval, will start from the front row of the grid for the sixth time this season. He was surprised to be beaten by Vickers in the end, as he thought his lap was right on the edge.

"That lap worked out OK but I'd never do it again," said Martin. "This place is easy to drive, but my car wasn't. Our car was pretty loose. We qualified 32nd the last race here and we were too tight. We made a plan or a pact between ourselves that we might be too loose but that wouldn't happen to us again.

"I didn't think about how loose [the car] was going to be. I just strapped in it and found out when I hit the corner."

Juan Pablo Montoya qualified third after holding provisional pole for most of the session, despite getting an early draw. The Colombian continued to show his Chase ambitions with his fourth consecutive top-ten start and his best ever qualifying effort at Michigan.

"I think my lap was a little early for the track, but it's OK," Montoya said. "We have a good car, had good pace in practice. It's hard to say, there's always a little more out there but our goal was more to get a really good clean lap. We had plenty of pace.

"I don't know if the track got any better but it seemed at the end some guys got a little faster."

Reigning champion Jimmie Johnson was fourth, while Martin Truex Jr rounded out a good session for Earnhardt Ganassi Racing by being fifth fastest.

Kurt Busch was the best Dodge runner in sixth, while Ryan Newman, who had been fastest in practice, could not quite repeat that speed in qualifying, ending up seventh ahead of rookie Joey Logano.

Bill Elliot was the fastest of the non-guaranteed drivers in ninth, also being the quickest Ford, while Kasey Kahne rounded out the top ten, although he will drop to the back of the grid for Sunday's race after his Dodge R6P8 engine blew up in practice.

Brad Keselowski qualified for what will be his eighth Cup start of the season from 12th on the grid driving for Rick Hendrick, while Tony Raines could not manage to make the field.

Pos  Driver              Make        Speed     Time       Gap
 1.  Brian Vickers       Toyota      187.242   38.453
 2.  Mark Martin         Chevrolet   187.013   38.500  +0.047
 3.  Juan Montoya        Chevrolet   186.819   38.540  +0.087
 4.  Jimmie Johnson      Chevrolet   186.432   38.620  +0.167
 5.  Martin Truex Jr     Chevrolet   186.263   38.655  +0.202
 6.  Kurt Busch          Dodge       186.157   38.677  +0.224
 7.  Ryan Newman         Chevrolet   185.912   38.728  +0.275
 8.  Joey Logano         Toyota      185.850   38.741  +0.288
 9.  Bill Elliott        Ford        185.807   38.750  +0.297
10.  Kasey Kahne         Dodge       185.783   38.755  +0.302
11.  Scott Speed         Toyota      185.778   38.756  +0.303
12.  Brad Keselowski     Chevrolet   185.730   38.766  +0.313
13.  AJ Allmendinger     Dodge       185.634   38.786  +0.333
14.  Sam Hornish Jr      Dodge       185.577   38.798  +0.345
15.  Dale Earnhardt Jr   Chevrolet   185.486   38.817  +0.364
16.  Denny Hamlin        Toyota      185.447   38.825  +0.372
17.  Greg Biffle         Ford        185.385   38.838  +0.385
18.  Tony Stewart        Chevrolet   185.309   38.854  +0.401
19.  Jamie McMurray      Ford        185.266   38.863  +0.410
20.  David Stremme       Dodge       185.057   38.907  +0.454
21.  Jeff Gordon         Chevrolet   184.938   38.932  +0.479
22.  Kevin Harvick       Chevrolet   184.871   38.946  +0.493
23.  Clint Bowyer        Chevrolet   184.587   39.006  +0.553
24.  Robby Gordon        Toyota      184.303   39.066  +0.613
25.  Matt Kenseth        Ford        184.186   39.091  +0.638
26.  Marcos Ambrose      Toyota      184.171   39.094  +0.641
27.  Jeff Burton         Chevrolet   183.974   39.136  +0.683
28.  Mike Bliss          Dodge       183.941   39.143  +0.690
29.  John Andretti       Chevrolet   183.894   39.153  +0.700
30.  Michael Waltrip     Toyota      183.753   39.183  +0.730
31.  David Reutimann     Toyota      183.702   39.194  +0.741
32.  Carl Edwards        Ford        183.496   39.238  +0.785
33.  Bobby Labonte       Ford        183.290   39.282  +0.829
34.  Elliott Sadler      Dodge       183.253   39.290  +0.837
35.  Paul Menard         Ford        183.220   39.297  +0.844
36.  David Gilliland     Chevrolet   183.173   39.307  +0.854
37.  David Ragan         Ford        182.964   39.352  +0.899
38.  Joe Nemechek        Toyota      182.866   39.373  +0.920
39.  Kyle Busch          Toyota      182.746   39.399  +0.946
40.  Reed Sorenson       Dodge       182.315   39.492  +1.039
41.  Dave Blaney         Toyota      182.274   39.501  +1.048
42.  Mike Skinner        Toyota      181.708   39.624  +1.171
43.  Casey Mears         Chevrolet   181.616   39.644  +1.191