Dale Earnhardt Jr. won the pole position for Sunday's Kobalt Tools 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway with a history-making lap.
In his qualifying run Friday, Earnhardt ran 28.761 seconds, 192.761 mph, setting a record for fastest in the new NASCAR Sprint Cup Series car, the Car of Tomorrow. The COT was used part-time in 2007 and became the standard racecar for the series in 2008. The previous fastest was Jimmie Johnson's speed of 192.376 mph at Charlotte Motor Speedway in October 2009.
Earnhardt's pole is the ninth in his Sprint Cup career and his second at Atlanta. His last pole came at Texas in April 2008, 68 starts ago. This is his third top-10 start in 2010.
"We’ve qualified well this year so far and hopefully we’ll start seeing those same improvements in our race team on Sunday. But it’s definitely a step in the right direction, so we feel pretty good,” Earnhardt said.
Kyle Busch will start on the outside pole, qualifying with a time of 28.833 seconds and speed of 192.280 mph.
The Kobalt Tools 500 will be broadcast Sunday at 1 p.m. ET on FOX. Green flag is set for 1:16 p.m. ET.
Starting lineup:
1. Dale Earnhardt Jr.
2. Kyle Busch
3. Juan Pablo Montoya
4. Mark Martin
5. Jeff Gordon
6. Kasey Kahne
7. Ryan Newman
8. Elliott Sadler
9. David Reutimann
10. Carl Edwards
11. Kurt Busch
12. Marcos Ambrose
13. Greg Biffle
14. Matt Kenseth
15. Tony Stewart
16. Jimmie Johnson
17. David Ragan
18. Clint Bowyer
19. Martin Truex Jr.
20. Denny Hamlin
21. Bobby Labonte
22. Jeff Burton
23. Paul Menard
24. Jamie McMurray
25. A.J. Allmendinger
26. Brian Vickers
27. Dave Blaney
28. Brad Keselowski
29. Joey Logano
30. Mike Bliss
31. Max Papis
32. Scott Speed
33. Joe Nemechek
34. Bill Elliott
35. Kevin Harvick
36. Sam Hornish Jr.
37. David Gilliland
38. Regan Smith
39. Robby Gordon
40. Travis Kvapil+
41. Kevin Conway+*
42. Boris Said+
43. Michael McDowell
Did Not Qualify:
Aric Almirola
Casey Mears
Terry Cook*
+Set by owner points
*Rookie
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Photo: Jason Smith / Getty Images for NASCAR
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