Vickers gives Red Bull maiden pole

The 24-year-old ran an impressive lap of 38.189 seconds at an average speed of 118.536 mph, improving nearly three tenths of a second from his best time in the first practice session where had also been fastest.

Vickers lap in the No. 83 Red Bull Toyota was a massive three tenths quicker than his closest rival, reigning champion Jimmie Johnson.

"This is awesome, to give Red Bull their first pole and in what a fashion," said Vickers after scoring his fifth Sprint Cup series career pole. "We really stepped it up today and I don't know, sometimes the car is just right and you don't really know why.

"Obviously it's because of a lot of hard work but why it was that right? That was just an unbelievable lap. I've never had a car that good in qualifying."

"If we can have it that good the whole race we would be in great shape. Obviously the race is a completely different environment but we've got a good baseline to start with and we'll try to make the most of it and try to make it good on the long run."

Red Bull's first pole comes in their second year at NASCAR's top level and just a week after Vickers' teammate AJ Allmendinger broke into the top-35 in the owner standings, securing himself a place on the grid for a race for the first time at Cup level.

Starting behind Vickers and Johnson on Sunday's race will be Gillett Evernham's Elliot Sadler and fall race-winner Dale Earnhardt Jr, while his Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jeff Gordon will take the grid from fifth beside rookie Patrick Carpentier.

"We were a little bit lucky that the cloud was right above (the racetrack) when we qualified," said Carpentier, once again the fastest rookie qualifier and also the quickest of the non-guaranteed drivers. "We'll start in the top ten so I'm happy about that. We've done a good improvement."

Greg Biffle in the fastest Ford was ninth and obviously best among the pre-race favorite Roush Fenway contingent. Despite that, he complained of an ill-handling car, which he will have to dial out on Saturday's practice ahead of Sunday's race.

"The car was terrible," said Biffle. "I don't know what's wrong with it. The car has a tremendous amount of speed; we just can't get it to do what it needs to do. I was all the way out of the gas and almost got in the fence. I came about an inch from the fence and lost probably half-a-second."

Scott Riggs, who learned today he will be out of job for next season after Ryan Newman was announced as the second driver for Stewart-Haas Racing in 2009, was a good tenth in Haas CNC's No. 66. Chevrolet.

Points' leader Kyle Busch qualified eleventh but well ahead of his Joe Gibbs Racing teammates.

Making his fourth Sprint Cup series start and only his second on an oval will be Australian Marcos Ambrose, who qualified 39th. "We just wanted to get in," said Ambrose. "It's just getting laps in these cars at these speeds at these kind of tracks. You just have to gain confidence."

Making his Cup debut will be 20-year-old Brad Coleman starting last on his first week filling in for JJ Yeley in the No. 96 Hall of Fame Toyota.

Johnny Sauter was the only driver not to qualify for Sunday's race.

Pos  Driver               Make       Speed     Time
 1.  Brian Vickers        Toyota     188.536   38.189
 2.  Jimmie Johnson       Chevrolet  187.028   38.497 + 0.308
 3.  Elliott Sadler       Dodge      186.577   38.590 + 0.401
 4.  Dale Earnhardt Jr    Chevrolet  186.321   38.643 + 0.454
 5.  Jeff Gordon          Chevrolet  186.032   38.703 + 0.514
 6.  Patrick Carpentier   Dodge      185.979   38.714 + 0.525
 7.  David Reutimann      Toyota     185.907   38.729 + 0.540
 8.  Regan Smith          Chevrolet  185.874   38.736 + 0.547
 9.  Greg Biffle          Ford       185.821   38.747 + 0.558
10.  Scott Riggs          Chevrolet  185.821   38.747 + 0.558
11.  Kyle Busch           Toyota     185.797   38.752 + 0.563
12.  Robby Gordon         Dodge      185.720   38.768 + 0.579
13.  Kurt Busch           Dodge      185.682   38.776 + 0.587
14.  Matt Kenseth         Ford       185.672   38.778 + 0.589
15.  Mark Martin          Chevrolet  185.596   38.794 + 0.605
16.  David Ragan          Ford       185.452   38.824 + 0.635
17.  Terry Labonte        Dodge      185.385   38.838 + 0.649
18.  Jamie McMurray       Ford       185.309   38.854 + 0.665
19.  Juan Montoya         Dodge      185.300   38.856 + 0.667
20.  Ryan Newman          Dodge      185.238   38.869 + 0.680
21.  Tony Stewart         Toyota     185.152   38.887 + 0.698
22.  Mike Skinner         Toyota     185.109   38.896 + 0.707
23.  Sam Hornish Jr       Dodge      184.648   38.993 + 0.804
24.  Dave Blaney          Toyota     184.639   38.995 + 0.806
25.  Martin Truex Jr      Chevrolet  184.634   38.996 + 0.807
26.  Travis Kvapil        Ford       184.596   39.004 + 0.815
27.  Carl Edwards         Ford       184.417   39.042 + 0.853
28.  Jeff Burton          Chevrolet  184.355   39.055 + 0.866
29.  Casey Mears          Chevrolet  184.270   39.073 + 0.884
30.  Tony Raines          Chevrolet  184.242   39.079 + 0.890
31.  Reed Sorenson        Dodge      184.171   39.094 + 0.905
32.  Kasey Kahne          Dodge      184.134   39.102 + 0.913
33.  AJ Allmendinger      Toyota     184.030   39.124 + 0.935
34.  Joe Nemechek         Chevrolet  183.955   39.140 + 0.951
35.  Bobby Labonte        Dodge      183.505   39.236 + 1.047
36.  Paul Menard          Chevrolet  183.505   39.236 + 1.047
37.  Denny Hamlin         Toyota     183.491   39.239 + 1.050
38.  Kevin Harvick        Chevrolet  183.313   39.277 + 1.088
39.  Marcos Ambrose       Ford       183.155   39.311 + 1.122
40.  David Gilliland      Ford       183.025   39.339 + 1.150
41.  Clint Bowyer         Chevrolet  183.001   39.344 + 1.155
42.  Michael Waltrip      Toyota     182.913   39.363 + 1.174
43.  Brad Coleman         Toyota     182.030   39.554 + 1.365