Vickers continues pole run at Sonoma

The Red Bull driver beat Kyle Busch's benchmark by 0.215 seconds to score his second consecutive pole this season and his first ever on a road course. His lap of 1m16.672s was more than a second faster than last year's pole time, partly due to a new softer tyre compound brought by Goodyear.

Toyota drivers swept the top three as Australian Marcos Ambrose was third fastest, taking the best qualifying result of his Cup career.

Vickers had been fifth fastest in practice but he made big gains on his qualifying lap, improving by more than six tenths of a second. Despite his effort being enough for pole, the 25-year-old felt he could have gone even faster.

"When I crossed the line I thought like I left a little bit on the table, just underdriving the car a little bit through the turns," Vickers said. "I've always tried to attack the kerbs and use them and you always make a mistake. You make one here and you leave a lot on the table. The team did a tremendous job in practice and we wanted to make no mistakes.

"I was really cautious and hit my marks and not hit any kerbs and it paid off."

Busch, who won both of last year's road course races, will start from the front row for the second week in a row, which is by far his best ever grid position at Sonoma.

"That was a really good run for us and I wasn't expecting to run that great," said Busch. "I feel like we made a lot of gains last year here and just kept those in the car for this year. We're excited about being on the front row here."

Ambrose had dominated practice earlier in the day but he could not match his speed during his qualifying lap, going around two tenths slower. Nevertheless, the Australian was happy to qualify in the top three for the first time in NASCAR's top series.

"I just got a little anxious," said Ambrose. "Just took a couple of kerbs a bit too strong and just didn't get the clean exits like I needed to. But I'm proud of the guys. We've had a great year so far and we're looking to really cement ourselves as a main player."

Points leader Tony Stewart had a solid qualifying in fourth, out-pacing the Hendrick Motorsports drivers while being the fastest Chevrolet. The two-time winner at Sonoma was more than half a second slower than the pole-sitter, though.

Kasey Kahne, last year's pole man, was the fastest Dodge driver in fifth, while Earnhardt Ganassi's Martin Truex Jr was sixth ahead of Ryan Newman and Elliot Sadler. Road course specialist Boris Said was ninth as the fastest of the non-guaranteed drivers and also the quickest Ford, while Matt Kenseth rounded out the top ten.

While his team-mate celebrated yet another pole position, rookie Scott Speed failed to qualify the second Red Bull car on his first road course race in the Sprint Cup. The Californian ran wide through the esses while finishing his lap and only managed to be 39th fastest.

Tom Hubert, Chris Cook and Brian Simo also failed to qualify.

Pos  Driver              Car        Time       Gap
 1.  Brian Vickers       Toyota     1m16.475s
 2.  Kyle Busch          Toyota     1m16.690s  + 0.215s
 3.  Marcos Ambrose      Toyota     1m16.918s  + 0.443s
 4.  Tony Stewart        Chevrolet  1m17.000s  + 0.525s
 5.  Kasey Kahne         Dodge      1m17.040s  + 0.565s
 6.  Martin Truex Jr     Chevrolet  1m17.048s  + 0.573s
 7.  Ryan Newman         Chevrolet  1m17.076s  + 0.601s
 8.  Elliott Sadler      Dodge      1m17.081s  + 0.606s
 9.  Boris Said          Ford       1m17.084s  + 0.609s
10.  Matt Kenseth        Ford       1m17.097s  + 0.622s
11.  Jimmie Johnson      Chevrolet  1m17.108s  + 0.633s
12.  Joey Logano         Toyota     1m17.144s  + 0.669s
13.  Jeff Gordon         Chevrolet  1m17.174s  + 0.699s
14.  Mark Martin         Chevrolet  1m17.202s  + 0.727s
15.  Greg Biffle         Ford       1m17.248s  + 0.773s
16.  Kevin Harvick       Chevrolet  1m17.254s  + 0.779s
17.  Juan Montoya        Chevrolet  1m17.319s  + 0.844s
18.  Sam Hornish Jr      Dodge      1m17.325s  + 0.850s
19.  Dave Blaney         Toyota     1m17.450s  + 0.975s
20.  AJ Allmendinger     Dodge      1m17.462s  + 0.987s
21.  Casey Mears         Chevrolet  1m17.505s  + 1.030s
22.  Robby Gordon        Toyota     1m17.506s  + 1.031s
23.  Jamie McMurray      Ford       1m17.556s  + 1.081s
24.  Denny Hamlin        Toyota     1m17.568s  + 1.093s
25.  Bobby Labonte       Ford       1m17.570s  + 1.095s
26.  Clint Bowyer        Chevrolet  1m17.612s  + 1.137s
27.  Kurt Busch          Dodge      1m17.615s  + 1.140s
28.  Reed Sorenson       Dodge      1m17.824s  + 1.349s
29.  Ron Fellows         Chevrolet  1m17.833s  + 1.358s
30.  Paul Menard         Ford       1m17.880s  + 1.405s
31.  Joe Nemechek        Toyota     1m17.926s  + 1.451s
32.  David Gilliland     Chevrolet  1m17.997s  + 1.522s
33.  Max Papis           Toyota     1m18.059s  + 1.584s
34.  Carl Edwards        Ford       1m18.082s  + 1.607s
35.  Dale Earnhardt Jr   Chevrolet  1m18.287s  + 1.812s
36.  Jeff Burton         Chevrolet  1m18.350s  + 1.875s
37.  PJ Jones            Toyota     1m18.359s  + 1.884s
38.  Patrick Carpentier  Toyota     1m18.806s  + 2.331s
39.  David Stremme       Dodge      1m18.811s  + 2.336s
40.  David Ragan         Ford       1m18.887s  + 2.412s
41.  John Andretti       Chevrolet  1m18.909s  + 2.434s
42.  David Reutimann     Toyota     1m19.070s  + 2.595s
43.  Brandon Ash         Dodge      1m18.641s  + 2.166s

Did not qualify:

     Scott Speed         Toyota     1m18.743s  + 2.268s
     Tom Hubert          Toyota     1m18.744s  + 2.269s
     Chris Cook          Dodge      1m19.222s  + 2.747s
     Brian Simo          Toyota     1m27.104s  + 10.629s