Kahne puts Dodge on Darlington pole

Kasey Kahne will lead the field to the green flag for the Dodge Charger 500 under the lights at Darlington Raceway. Kahne's lap of 169.013 earned him his third pole of the season and the ninth of his career.

"It means a lot to win the pole for a big Dodge race," said Kahne. "The team did a great job making the car a little better than it was in practice. The engines run great, and I'm just happy to get a Bud pole again."

Ryan Newman was second with a lap of 168.192 mph, "That was a pretty good lap, but Kasey put down an awesome lap. I'm happy to be up there on the front row in the Dodge Charger 500. Darlington is my favorite race track and I am looking forward to racing here."

Clint Bowyer grabbed his best starting spot of the year with third.

"I am glad to be leading the RCR charge here," said Bowyer who charted a lap of 168.071 mph. "It's a great starting spot for us. I think we are going to be good here tomorrow night."

David Stremme and Denny Hamlin completed the top five.

"That was pretty good," Stremme stated. "The guys on the Lonestar Dodge have been working hard in the shop and this is actually a borrowed car from the 41 team, so I thank them for that. I felt like I could have given more in 1 and 2 but we wanted to be conservative."

NASCAR Nextel Cup series point leader Jimmie Johnson went out first, not the most advantageous of spots. The two-time Darlington winner had to settle for taking the green flag from 25th.

Forty-seven cars attempted to qualify for the forty-three car field. Failing to make the Dodge Charger 500 were Kenny Wallace, Chad Chaffin, Carl Long and Chad Blount.