Following the somewhat soporific race at Dover one week ago the Sprint Cup Series turns to the uniquely triangular Pocono Raceway for an injection of excitement to proceedings.
The two-mile Pocono tri-oval may not be a natural choice for an unpredictable, highly dramatic event and the fans that will cram themselves into the single biggest grandstand in all of NASCAR all along the huge front straightaway will certainly hope that Sunday's 200-lap affair will contain more tension than Friday's Coors Light pole qualifying session, which saw Kasey Kahne take his first pole of the season.
After his recent run of winning form came to an abrupt halt in last Sunday's early race melee at Dover Kahne powered back to the top of the charts in his #9 Gillett-Evernham Motorsports Dodge with a best lap of 52.873-seconds (170.219mph) to claim his first pole position since the Bristol race last August.
Kahne was one of the last of the top 35 drivers to make his qualifying run and his effort deposed Jimmie Johnson, the very first driver to make his run, to the outside of row one. Nobody that followed Kahne could better either his or Johnson's 52.986-seconds (169.856mph) time leaving the defending series champ starting from P2.
Mark Martin and rookie Regan Smith will share row two with Smith putting in a career best effort in the #01 DEI Chevrolet as he quietly improves as his maiden year progresses. Joe Nemechek posted the biggest surprise of the session by placing the #78 Furniture Row Racing Chevrolet in fifth place, once again the fastest of the non guaranteed drivers with Carl Edwards sixth, Dale Earnhardt Jr seventh and AJ Allmendinger eighth, continuing his best run in the series.
Haas CNC Racing's Scott Riggs, finding himself outside the top 35 in owner points thanks to NASCAR's massive 150 point penalty for infractions two weeks ago at the Lowe's Motor Speedway, qualified ninth with Dover winner Kyle Busch tenth and last year's second Pocono race winner Kurt Busch 11th.
Tony Stewart, who won last week's all-star sprint car event in Eldora, will start 12th with Matt Kenseth 13th and the returning Dario Franchitti an excellent 14th. Defending Pocono 500 winner Jeff Gordon will start 38th while Terry Labonte had to use a Past Champions provisional to secure his place in the field on his return to racing for Kyle Petty's #45 team.
After Tony Raines crashed on his first lap of practice in the #34 Front Row Motorsports entry just 44 cars went out in qualifying with JJ Yeley being the unlucky one to miss out for Hall of Fame Racing.
