Kasey Kahne wins Southern 500 pole at Darlington

Posted: 05.06.2011 at 4:52 PM

Kasey Kahne has won the pole for Saturday night's Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway. Kahne set a track record with a qualifying speed of 181.254 miles an hour to put his Toyota in the top spot. It is the fourth straight year that the track qualifying record has been eclipsed since the Darlington Raceway surface was repaved. Kahne has won four poles in nine Sprint Cup starts at Darlington.

Ryan Newman will start second. Defending Southern 500 champion Denny Hamlin qualified third. Sprint Cup points leader Carl Edwards was fourth in qualifying.

QUALIFYING RESULTS by SPEED

Qualifying after 46 of 46 drivers:

Pos	Sched Qual Pos	Actual Qual Pos	Car#	Driver	Manu	Qual Speed (mph)	Qual Time (seconds)	Last Practice Speed	Practice Rank	Difference Qual vs Prac (mph)	Owners Points Rank
1	31	31	4	Kasey Kahne	Toyota	181.254	27.131	175.509	5	5.745	18
2	35	35	39	Ryan Newman	Chevy	180.429	27.255	176.816	1	3.613	8
3	32	32	11	Denny Hamlin	Toyota	180.132	27.300	175.516	4	4.616	17
4	34	34	99	Carl Edwards	Ford	179.980	27.323	176.296	2	3.684	1
5	24	24	24	Jeff Gordon	Chevy	179.829	27.346	174.432	12	5.397	16
6	21	21	9	Marcos Ambrose	Ford	179.671	27.370	174.037	15	5.634	23
7	8	8	43	A.J. Allmendinger	Ford	179.448	27.404	171.399	34	8.049	11
8	30	30	83	Brian Vickers	Toyota	179.259	27.433	175.478	6	3.781	26
9	25	25	14	Tony Stewart	Chevy	179.108	27.456	174.674	11	4.434	10
10	10	10	2	Brad Keselowski	Dodge	179.082	27.460	172.004	29	7.078	28
11	20	20	6	David Ragan	Ford	179.076	27.461	173.583	16	5.493	19
12	7	7	1	Jamie McMurray	Chevy	178.880	27.491	171.041	35	7.839	24
13	27	27	29	Kevin Harvick	Chevy	178.588	27.536	174.892	9	3.696	5
14	19	19	18	Kyle Busch	Toyota	178.445	27.558	173.534	17	4.911	3
15	5	5	47	Bobby Labonte	Toyota	178.381	27.568	170.720	39	7.661	25
16	28	28	42	Juan PabloMontoya	Chevy	178.264	27.586	175.153	8	3.111	12
17	26	26	20	Joey Logano	Toyota	178.161	27.602	174.724	10	3.437	21
18	13	13	27	Paul Menard	Chevy	178.103	27.611	172.366	24	5.737	15
19	15	15	48	Jimmie Johnson	Chevy	178.038	27.621	172.445	22	5.593	2
20	29	29	17	Matt Kenseth	Ford	177.993	27.628	175.178	7	2.815	9
21	40	40	38	Travis Kvapil (i)	Ford	177.987	27.629	170.910	36	7.077	39-IN
22	14	14	16	Greg Biffle	Ford	177.955	27.634	172.414	23	5.541	14
23	22	22	78	Regan Smith	Chevy	177.871	27.647	174.235	14	3.636	29
24	9	9	31	Jeff Burton	Chevy	177.826	27.654	171.998	30	5.828	20
25	33	33	22	Kurt Busch	Dodge	177.755	27.665	175.654	3	2.101	6
26	23	23	33	Clint Bowyer	Chevy	177.723	27.670	174.358	13	3.365	7
27	6	6	09	Landon Cassill (i)	Chevy	177.672	27.678	170.768	38	6.904	31
28	11	11	5	Mark Martin	Chevy	177.614	27.687	172.209	27	5.405	13
29	16	16	56	Martin Truex Jr.	Toyota	177.083	27.770	172.475	21	4.608	22
30	17	17	88	Dale Earnhardt Jr.	Chevy	176.720	27.827	172.541	20	4.179	4
31	46	45	46	J.J. Yeley	Chevy	176.682	27.833	173.045	18	3.637	40-IN
32	12	12	13	Casey Mears	Toyota	176.391	27.879	172.233	26	4.158	36
33	44	44	50	T.J. Bell (i)	Toyota	176.239	27.903	172.185	28	4.054	0-IN
34	42	41	60	Mike Skinner (i)	Toyota	176.201	27.909	171.926	32	4.275	45-IN
35	41	42	37	Tony Raines	Ford	176.189	27.911	171.788	33	4.401	38-IN
36	18	18	00	David Reutimann	Toyota	176.125	27.921	172.930	19	3.195	27
37	2	2	34	David Gilliland	Ford	175.472	28.025	168.984	43	6.488	30
38	43	43	30	David Stremme	Chevy	175.409	28.035	171.932	31	3.477	46-IN
39	45	46	66	Michael McDowell	Toyota	175.353	28.044	172.287	25	3.066	41-IN
40	4	4	32	Ken Schrader	Ford	175.291	28.054	169.783	41	5.508	35
41	38	38	87	Joe Nemechek (i)	Toyota	174.600	28.165	170.271	40	4.329	43-IN
42	3	3	36	Dave Blaney	Chevy	174.229	28.225	169.310	42	4.919	34
43	1	1	7	Robby Gordon	Dodge	174.167	28.325	0.000	46	174.167	33
44	39	39	81	Scott Riggs (i)	Chevy	174.093	28.247	170.780	37	3.313	0-DNQ
45	36	36	71	Andy Lally	Ford	171.866	28.613	166.919	45	4.947	37-DNQ
46	37	37	92	Brian Keselowski	Dodge	170.892	28.776	167.779	44	3.113	47-DNQ