Burton on Chicagoland pole

Jeff Burton placed the No. 31 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet on the pole at Chicagoland Speedway with a lap of 181.647. It is Burton's second pole of the season, Burton started first for the season opener at Daytona International Speedway. It is the fourth of his career.

Burton is enjoying resurgence this season, having earned ten top 10 finishes. He currently sits tenth in NASCAR Nextel Cup series point standings.

"I was really happy with the way the car drove," said Burton. "I said after our qualifying run that I thought we got all there was. We picked up pretty good from practice.I knew there were a lot of good cars left to go but we had made a great effort.we have made a commitment to excellence not mediocrity and I am proud of that."

Brian Vickers will join Burton on the front row after posting a lap of 181.318 mph.

"It was a good lap," said Vickers. "It just wasn't good enough, unfortunately. Jeff Burton just put down too good of a lap."

A lap of 180.687 mph grabbed Kasey Kahne the third starting spot, "Kenny Francis (crew chief) made some good adjustments, and the track was in better shape than it was in practice. The car felt awesome. I've sat on poles before with that type of feeling. Jeff Burton just put down a killer lap today."

Kevin Harvick and Jimmie Johnson complete the top five quickest times.

"This place has been great to us," Harvick said. "Obviously, we've won here a couple of times. Car was good in practice and hopefully we can keep up the success here because obviously it's been very good to us."

Notably, Jamie McMurray crashed during the initial practice session for Cup series teams and was forced to go to his back-up car. The No. 26 Roush Ford team was able to prepare the new car and get a few laps of practice before the session ended. McMurray charted one of the slowest times during time trials and will start 42nd.

Fifty cars attempted to qualify for the forty-three car field; failing to make the show were Derrike Cope, Brent Sherman, Carl Long, Kevin Lepage, Chad Blount, Mike Garvey and Paul Menard.