Chasers pack seven in top 15 in Texas Cup qualifying

The 12-driver Chase for the Nextel Cup field served notice Friday that the fight for the title would take place at the front from the drop of the green flag on Sunday, as those drivers swept six of the top eight spots in qualifying for the Dickies 500.

In all, seven Chase drivers posted times in the top 15, nine of them will start in the top 20 and none will start from worse than 29th, which should make Sunday's race a shootout.

First for No. 1

Martin Truex Jr. earned his first career pole on Friday afternoon at Texas Motor Speedway.

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Martin Truex Jr. was the next-to-last Chaser out -- the last being points leader Jeff Gordon -- and Truex made it stand up with the only sub-28-second lap of the session.

It was also the first pole of Truex's career.

Truex's 27.946-second lap at 193.105 mph in the No. 1 Chevrolet was good for the pole, and not even Gordon could match it, though he came close with a run at 28.063, 192.424 mph in the No. 24 Chevrolet to line up on the outside of the front row.

Truex has top-10 finishes in half his four starts at TMS, a seventh and an eighth. His average finish is 11.0, tied for third in the Chase with Matt Kenseth.

Gordon, on the other hand, has 13 starts, five top-five and six top-10 finishes but no victories -- TMS is one of only two tracks at which he has never won. Gordon led 173 laps at Texas in the spring before finishing fourth. His average finish is 15.8, ninth in the Chase.

Kevin Harvick went out in the first group of 10 cars and immediately advanced to the head of the line with a lap at 28.090 seconds, 192.239 mph. Ironically, it was the exact same time and speed as A.J. Allmendinger, who knocked Kurt Busch off the pole early.

His lap didn't stand up to the flurry near the end, as his No. 29 Monte Carlo fell first to Juan Montoya, then to Truex and to Gordon. He'll line up fourth on Sunday.

Harvick has nine starts at Texas, with his best finish a third-place in this race last year. He has another top-five and three top-10s to go along with it. Harvick averages 14.0 per Texas finish, eighth among Chasers.

Busch was first out on Friday, and his first shot was a 28.101-second lap at 192.164 mph in the No. 2 Dodge. Busch is a better-than-even bet to be in the top 10 when the checkered waves on Sunday, having finished six of his nine races there, and he rolls off sixth on Sunday.

Busch has a fourth-place run at Texas as his best result, and he's fifth in average finish among Chasers at 12.4. Busch led 42 laps at Texas in the spring before finishing 11th.

Denny Hamlin put the No. 11 Chevrolet in seventh at 28.106 seconds, 192.130 mph, just a tick off Busch's lap. Hamlin's worst finish in four starts is 10th, so it's no surprise that his average finish at Texas is a Chase-best 7.5. (Continued)