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.

Jimmie Johnson, just nine points behind Gordon heading into the Dickies 500, will start Sunday's event eighth after logging a lap at 28.115 seconds, 192.068 mph in the No. 48 Chevrolet.

Like Gordon, Johnson has yet to win at Texas, with his best finish a runner-up to Tony Stewart in last year's fall race. He has three top-five and six top-10 finishes in eight starts for an average finish of 10.3 (second-best in the Chase). He's led just three laps at Texas and crashed in the spring to finish 38th.

Stewart, who won this race last year in dominating fashion, landed 15th in the No. 20 Chevrolet at 28.224 seconds, 191.327 mph. Stewart, coming off a dismal run at Atlanta last week, led 278 of the 334 laps last year in the last of his three-victory closing barrage.

For his career, Stewart has the victory, three top-five and seven top-10 finishes in 11 starts, and he's led a Chase-best 453 laps at Texas. His average finish of 13.7 is seventh among the 12 Chasers.

Kyle Busch, who will be Stewart's teammate next season at Joe Gibbs Racing, put his No. 5 Chevrolet in the field 17th at 28.232 seconds, 191.272 mph. In five starts, the younger Busch brother has just one finish better than 15th (fourth in this race last year) to go with two finishes of 37th or worse. His average finish is a Chase-worst 23.4.

Kenseth has run consistently well at Texas over the years, as evidenced by his average finish of 11.0, and he put the No. 17 Ford in 18th with a lap at 28.244 seconds, 191.191 mph.

Kenseth won here in 2002, before the second race was added, and has four top-five and five top-10 finishes. He's led 330 laps at Texas.

Carl Edwards, fresh off a runner-up showing at Atlanta, wound up 21st in the No. 99 Ford after his lap at 28.275 seconds, 190.981 mph.

Edwards broke through to Victory Lane in just his second start at Texas back in 2005, but that's been about it for the Missouri driver. His best finish other than that triumph is 12th, earlier this year. He averages 16.6 per finish, 10th among the Chasers.

Jeff Burton, the only two-time winner at Texas after turning the trick earlier this year, hit 190.570 mph on his lap (28.300 seconds), and put the No. 31 Chevrolet in 27th. Burton, who along with Gordon, Dale Jarrett and Mark Martin are the only drivers to start all 13 races there, has the two victories, three top-fives and five top-10s, but his average finish is 17.8 -- next to last among Chase drivers.

Clint Bowyer, who trails Gordon by 115 points with three races left, brought up the rear in the Chase by qualifying his No. 07 Chevrolet 29th at 28.394 seconds, 190.181 mph.

In his three previous starts, Bowyer has a fifth-place effort in this race last year as his best result, and his average finish is sixth in the Chase at 13.3.

The majority of the Chase drivers picked up time from the first practice, with the notable exceptions being Bowyer and Kyle Busch. Edwards and Truex picked up the most, with Edwards lopping five-tenths of a second off his time and Truex nearly four-tenths of a second off his.

A little more than three-tenths of a second (.348 seconds) separate pole-sitter Truex from 29th-place Bowyer.