Kasey Kahne's championship hopes may have ended last week at Phoenix but that didn't stop him from taking his sixth Bud Pole Award of the season at the Homestead-Miami Speedway on Friday.
The driver of the #9 Evernham Motorsports Dodge is now guaranteed at least a share of the season-leading totals in both pole positions and race wins as Friday's effort ties him with Penske Racing's Kurt Busch and he goes into Sunday's title deciding showdown also with six race wins this year, one more than current championship leader Jimmie Johnson.
Kahne and his Evernham teammates somewhat overshadowed the title contenders during qualifying at the 1.5-mile variable banked Homestead oval with Scott Riggs joining Kahne on the front row in his #10 Dodge and Elliott Sadler taking fourth spot behind Johnson's Hendrick Motorsport teammate Kyle Busch.
With the pressure of winning the title now off, many of the five drivers officially eliminated from championship contention were able to throw a bit of caution to the wind with Kahne, Kyle Busch and fifth place qualifier Jeff Burton all showing well. Jeff Gordon and Mark Martin, the other two Chase contenders now out of the title picture, will start 12th and 26th respectively.
With the level of tension almost palpable amongst the five remaining title hopefuls it was no surprise that Johnson, Matt Kenseth, Kevin Harvick, rookie Denny Hamlin and Dale Earnhardt Jr took a rather circumspect approach to their two lap qualifying run.
Phoenix winner Harvick is the best placed of the five contenders and will start seventh with Earnhardt Jr 14th, Johnson 15th and Kenseth 19th. Hamlin is the only driver with major work to do at the start of Sunday's race after a disappointing 33rd place effort and while the driver of the #11 Joe Gibbs Racing Chevrolet is currently down, time and time again this year he has also proved that he is not out.
With Tony Stewart certain of eleventh place in the standings, the only other decider this weekend is for which team gets 35th place in team points and a guaranteed place in the starting field. Fourth place starter Sadler is 34th and needs to avoid a DNF in order to assure himself a place in the top 35 for the start of next season while Kyle Petty, the man currently in 35th place with a 47 point cushion on Sterling Marlin will start38th.
Before he could even think about trying to usurp Petty for 35th Marlin first had to overcome one of the toughest qualifying sessions of the entire season as no less than 55 teams tried to make the field. Marlin successfully guided his #14 Chevrolet into the starting line-up with 18th fastest time in qualifying but the double Daytona 500 champion needs a clean run and a top 20 finish at least if he is to ensure himself of participation in the 2007 season opener.
Amidst the various championship scenarios at both the head and rear of the grid, Juan Montoya seamlessly guided his #30 Chip Ganassi Dodge into the field as well with 29th fastest time, making a Nextel Cup field at his very first attempt.
Montoya and Marlin were two of eight drivers to qualify for the Ford 400 on speed with Mike Bliss, Scott Wimmer (in a third RCR entry), Paul Menard, Jeremy Mayfield (in the Phoenix Racing Dodge), Travis Kvapil and Bill Elliott (in the #00 Michael Waltrip entry) also making the cut.
A dozen drivers failed to qualify, led by Ward Burton in the Morgan McClure Motorsports entry. Also failing to qualify were Phoenix debutant Brandon Whitt, series returnee Casey Atwood and the Brewco team, Kenny Wallace, Todd Kluever, David Ragan, Michael Waltrip, Mike Skinner in Kirk Shelmerdine's ride, Derrike Cope, Kevin Lepage, Carl Long and Chad Chaffin.
