Yeley on maiden Cup pole at Michigan

Yeley lapped the 2-mile oval at an average speed of 187.505 mph, setting a time of 38.399 seconds in his No. 18 Joe Gibbs's Chevrolet Monte Carlo.

He was the 31st car on track for his run and nervously watched how Nextel Cup reigning champion Jimmie Johnson, the penultimate car to complete his two laps, almost equaled his effort.

"To do it that close, man, I'm just glad that Jimmie was that much slower than I was," said a relieved Yeley.

"It's awesome. I know this is one of the most favorite racetracks we get to come to, so to get a pole here and be my first one is pretty special. Hopefully we can rebound this weekend and try to win the race."

Johnson was left a bit disappointed to lose such a clear shot at a rare pole position for him, but was yet optimistic for the rest of the weekend as it has already started better than it normally does for him.

"I don't win many poles in the course of a season or throughout my career so I hate seeing an opportunity slide by," said Johnson.

"Qualifying is just no my specialty so I really have to commend the team and the race car that they brought here for me. Since we took it off the truck it's just been really comfortable to drive."

After a busy morning with the media, Kyle Busch was happy to put the subject of his future to rest at least for a while, setting the third fastest lap of the session. He was on provisional pole for a while despite a very early qualifying draw.

"It's been busy," Busch said. "But you just try to go about things the best you can. You know you have a lot to think about, there's still the guys and everybody at Hendrick Motorsport you've got to think about you future, you've got to think about everything.

"You've got to put it all into perspective and look at the items you've got to concentrate on most and put those at the top of your list."

Ryan Newman continued to show his great qualifying speed by setting the fourth fastest time of the session, just ahead of a surprising Joe Nemechek who had his best qualifying effort of the season in the No. 13 Ginn Racing Chevrolet.

Point's leader and two-time winner at Michigan Jeff Gordon was sixth, while Matt Kenseth, another two-time winner at the 2-mile oval will start from 26th. Kenseth has been the only non-Chevrolet winner of the season, taking victory at Fontana, a very similar track to Michigan.

"Certainly it's been a good track for us," Kenseth said. "It's been a good track for Roush Racing and we all ran pretty good at California which is pretty much a sister track so we're hoping to run well again here."

Brian Vickers was the fastest Toyota qualifier in 16th, followed by another two Camrys, Dave Blaney and a resurgent Michael Waltrip who was happy to make his third start of the year.

"From the first time I ran in practice this morning, the car just felt right," Waltrip said. "We are taking baby steps and this is a good step in the right direction. I would definitely rather be in than out and now we need to focus on running good in the race."

Juan Pablo Montoya was the fastest rookie qualifier in 33rd in his return to the scene of one of his most spectacular wins in Champ Car in 2000. The Colombian, driving a completely different animal this time, feels he still needs more miles on the track.

"It was okay," Montoya said. "The first lap I didn't get everything out of the car. I pushed a bit harder on the second lap. We'll see. We've got practice tomorrow. We'll see what happens."

Dale Jarrett, Ward Burton, Jeremy Mayfield, Mike Bliss and Kevin Lepage were not fast enough to make the field, while Kenny Wallace had mechanical problems prior to his run and was unable to leave the pits.

Pos  Driver              Make        Speed     Time
 1.  JJ Yeley            Chevrolet   187.505   38.399
 2.  Jimmie Johnson      Chevrolet   187.500   38.400 + 0.001
 3.  Kyle Busch          Chevrolet   186.829   38.538 + 0.139
 4.  Ryan Newman         Dodge       186.596   38.586 + 0.187
 5.  Joe Nemechek        Chevrolet   186.475   38.611 + 0.212
 6.  Jeff Gordon         Chevrolet   186.417   38.623 + 0.224
 7.  Denny Hamlin        Chevrolet   186.321   38.643 + 0.244
 8.  Martin Truex Jr     Chevrolet   186.013   38.707 + 0.308
 9.  Jeff Burton         Chevrolet   185.907   38.729 + 0.330
10.  Kurt Busch          Dodge       185.845   38.742 + 0.343
11.  Clint Bowyer        Chevrolet   185.730   38.766 + 0.367
12.  Carl Edwards        Ford        185.648   38.783 + 0.384
13.  Casey Mears         Chevrolet   185.634   38.786 + 0.387
14.  Greg Biffle         Ford        185.610   38.791 + 0.392
15.  Mark Martin         Chevrolet   185.605   38.792 + 0.393
16.  Brian Vickers       Toyota      185.600   38.793 + 0.394
17.  Dave Blaney         Toyota      185.557   38.802 + 0.403
18.  Michael Waltrip     Toyota      185.543   38.805 + 0.406
19.  Kevin Harvick       Chevrolet   185.366   38.842 + 0.443
20.  David Gilliland     Ford        185.271   38.862 + 0.463
21.  Bill Elliott        Ford        185.266   38.863 + 0.464
22.  Scott Riggs         Dodge       185.233   38.870 + 0.471
23.  Dale Earnhardt Jr   Chevrolet   185.209   38.875 + 0.476
24.  David Stremme       Dodge       185.100   38.898 + 0.499
25.  Ricky Rudd          Ford        184.985   38.922 + 0.523
26.  Matt Kenseth        Ford        184.772   38.967 + 0.568
27.  Sterling Marlin     Chevrolet   184.720   38.978 + 0.579
28.  Johnny Sauter       Chevrolet   184.720   38.978 + 0.579
29.  Reed Sorenson       Dodge       184.596   39.004 + 0.605
30.  Robby Gordon        Ford        184.582   39.007 + 0.608
31.  Bobby Labonte       Dodge       184.497   39.025 + 0.626
32.  Tony Raines         Chevrolet   184.351   39.056 + 0.657
33.  Juan Montoya        Dodge       184.228   39.082 + 0.683
34.  David Ragan         Ford        184.143   39.100 + 0.701
35.  Jamie McMurray      Ford        184.087   39.112 + 0.713
36.  Kasey Kahne         Dodge       183.739   39.186 + 0.787
37.  John Andretti       Dodge       183.337   39.272 + 0.873
38.  Paul Menard         Chevrolet   183.337   39.272 + 0.873
39.  Elliott Sadler      Dodge       183.253   39.290 + 0.891
40.  David Reutimann     Toyota      183.248   39.291 + 0.892
41.  Tony Stewart        Chevrolet   183.006   39.343 + 0.944
42.  Jeff Green          Chevrolet   182.969   39.351 + 0.952
43.  AJ Allmendinger     Toyota      183.173   39.307 + 0.908