Earnhardt Jr. Edges Busch For AMS Pole

Posted on March 5th, 2010 by Stephen Rhodes in NASCAR - Qualifying Times - Sprint Cup Series - News/Rumors

Dale Earnhardt Jr

Hanging on to his car for dear life on one breathtaking lap, Dale Earnhardt Jr. won the pole for Sunday’s Kobalt Tools 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway with the fastest lap in NASCAR’s new car since its introduction in 2007.

Earnhardt paced Friday’s qualifying session at the 1.54-mile race track with a lap at 192.716 mph, good enough to edge 2008 race winner Kyle Busch (192.280 mph) for the top spot. Juan Montoya (192.106 mph) qualified third, followed by Mark Martin (191.814 mph) and Jeff Gordon (191.774 mph).

The pole was Earnhardt’s second at Atlanta, the ninth of his career, his first since April 2008 at Texas and his third since September 2002 at Kansas.

Below is the starting grid for Sunday’s 2010 Kobalt Tools 500 from Atlanta Motor Speedway:

POS	CAR	DRIVER	MAKE	SPONSOR	SPEED	TIME	BEHIND
1	88	Dale Earnhardt Jr.	Chevrolet	Amp Energy / National Guard	192.761	28.761	Leader
2	18	Kyle Busch	Toyota	M&M’s	192.280	28.833	-0.072
3	42	Juan Montoya	Chevrolet	Target	192.106	28.859	-0.098
4	5	Mark Martin	Chevrolet	HendrickCars.com / GoDaddy.com	191.814	28.903	-0.142
5	24	Jeff Gordon	Chevrolet	National Guard / DuPont	191.774	28.909	-0.148
6	9	Kasey Kahne	Ford	Budweiser	191.688	28.922	-0.161
7	39	Ryan Newman	Chevrolet	Tornados	191.549	28.943	-0.182
8	19	Elliott Sadler	Ford	Hunt Brothers Pizza	191.436	28.960	-0.199
9	00	David Reutimann	Toyota	Aaron’s Dream Machine	191.186	28.998	-0.237
10	99	Carl Edwards	Ford	Scotts	191.087	29.013	-0.252
11	2	Kurt Busch	Dodge	Miller Lite	191.054	29.018	-0.257
12	47	Marcos Ambrose	Toyota	Lance Snacks / Tom’s Snacks	190.935	29.036	-0.275
13	16	Greg Biffle	Ford	U.S. Census	190.850	29.049	-0.288
14	17	Matt Kenseth	Ford	Valvoline	190.791	29.058	-0.297
15	14	Tony Stewart	Chevrolet	Office Depot / Old Spice	190.692	29.073	-0.312
16	48	Jimmie Johnson	Chevrolet	Lowe’s / Kobalt Tools	190.640	29.081	-0.320
17	6	David Ragan	Ford	UPS	190.574	29.091	-0.330
18	33	Clint Bowyer	Chevrolet	BB&T	190.561	29.093	-0.332
19	56	Martin Truex Jr.	Toyota	NAPA Auto Parts	190.548	29.095	-0.334
20	11	Denny Hamlin	Toyota	FedEx Office	190.424	29.114	-0.353
21	71	Bobby Labonte	Chevrolet	TaxSlayer.com	190.267	29.138	-0.377
22	31	Jeff Burton	Chevrolet	Caterpillar	190.221	29.145	-0.384
23	98	Paul Menard	Ford	CertainTeed / Menards	189.987	29.181	-0.420
24	1	Jamie McMurray	Chevrolet	Bass Pro Shops / Tracker	189.915	29.192	-0.431
25	43	A.J. Allmendinger	Ford	Insignia / Best Buy	189.857	29.201	-0.440
26	83	Brian Vickers	Toyota	Red Bull	189.798	29.210	-0.449
27	66	Dave Blaney	Toyota	Prism Motorsports	189.590	29.242	-0.481
28	12	Brad Keselowski	Dodge	Mopar / FLO TV	189.571	29.245	-0.484
29	20	Joey Logano	Toyota	The Home Depot	189.189	29.304	-0.543
30	36	Mike Bliss	Chevrolet	Wave Energy Drink	189.144	29.311	-0.550
31	13	Max Papis	Toyota	GEICO	189.112	29.316	-0.555
32	82	Scott Speed	Toyota	Red Bull	189.079	29.321	-0.560
33	87	Joe Nemechek	Toyota	FrontRowJoe.com	189.060	29.324	-0.563
34	21	Bill Elliott	Ford	Motorcraft / Quick Lane Tire & Auto Center	189.021	29.330	-0.569
35	29	Kevin Harvick	Chevrolet	Shell / Pennzoil	189.015	29.331	-0.570
36	77	Sam Hornish Jr.	Dodge	Mobil 1	188.970	29.338	-0.577
37	38	David Gilliland	Ford	Charter Air Transport / Taco Bell	188.341	29.436	-0.675
38	78	Regan Smith	Chevrolet	Furniture Row Companies	187.958	29.496	-0.735
39	7	Robby Gordon	Toyota	Warner Music Nashville / Blake Shelton	186.403	29.742	-0.981
40	34	Travis Kvapil+	Ford	Long John Silver’s	185.430	29.898	-1.137
41	37	Kevin Conway+*	Ford	Extenze	184.812	29.998	-1.237
42	26	Boris Said+	Ford	Sacred Power / Southern Pride Trucking	182.916	30.309	-1.548
43	55	Michael McDowell	Toyota	Prism Motorsports	188.758	29.371	-0.610

Did Not Qualify
44	09	Aric Almirola	Chevrolet	Phoenix Racing	188.066	29.479	-0.718
45	190	Casey Mears	Chevrolet	Juice Air Fre sheners / SmellMyCar.com	187.678	29.540	-0.779
46	46	Terry Cook*	Dodge	Whitney Motorsports	186.122	29.787	-1.026