Biffle earns pole as track record falls at Darlington

DARLINGTON, S.C. -- Greg Biffle scorched the repaved racing surface at Darlington Raceway on Friday to win the pole for Saturday night's Dodge Challenger 500 Sprint Cup race.

One of three drivers who participated in recent Goodyear tire tests at the 1.366-mile speedway (the others being Jeff Gordon and Ryan Newman), Biffle turned a lap in 27.405 seconds (179.442 mph) to win the fifth pole of his career, as 41 of 44 drivers who completed at least one qualifying lap shattered Ward Burton's 1996 track qualifying record of 173.797 mph.

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Biffle, who won back-to-back races at Darlington in 2005 and 2006, edged Dale Earnhardt Jr., who posted a lap at 179.357 mph. Driving a backup car that had to be repaired after his second crash of the day, Jimmie Johnson claimed the third starting position at 179.206 mph.

Tony Stewart (179.076 mph) will start fourth, followed by Kurt Busch (178.965 mph) and series points leader Kyle Busch (178.809 mph).

"It's the same old Darlington," said Biffle, who acknowledged that the two tire tests at the track dubbed the Lady in Black helped him get up to speed during the first two practice sessions. "It will bite you if you let your guard down.

"When the green flag flies [Saturday] night, that will be the first time these cars have gone around side-by-side 10 or 20 deep [on the new pavement], so track position is going to be really important."

Because crashes had interrupted earlier practice sessions, Biffle didn't have a chance to attempt an all-out qualifying run before he came to the line in Friday's time trials.

"I was holding my breath coming to the green flag," he said. "But I knew we had a great racecar."

Earnhardt, who saw his time bettered by .013 seconds, was happy to grab a front-row starting position.

"Hopefully, we'll have some luck night [Saturday] night," said Earnhardt, who enters the event on a 72-race winless streak. "I know we've got a good enough car to get a win.

"It's going to be a tough race. We're going to have to run really hard all night, and the track's going to get faster as it cools down. So you just have to have a lot of nerve, because you're going to have to run a lot of hard, fast laps the whole race."

Johnson, who damaged his primary car in Friday's first practice and broke the front splitter on his backup car in Happy Hour, was thankful he avoided contact on his qualifying lap.

"I'm just glad I didn't hit anything on that last outing," Johnson said with a chuckle. "I'm just happy to be out here with a top-five starting position, because I think it's going to be important to start up front."

Notes: Kasey Kahne scraped the wall on his first qualifying lap and didn't complete a full circuit. Kahne went to a backup car after qualifying and will start from the rear of the field Saturday night. ... Johnny Sauter (No. 70 Chevrolet) and Jeff Green (No. 34 Chevrolet) failed to qualify for the race.