Stewart grabs Texas pole, first in four-plus years

FORT WORTH, Texas -- Tony Stewart and the Coors Light Pole award rarely belong in the same sentence.

Stewart, however, defied his self-proclaimed status as a poor qualifier Friday by winning the pole for Sunday's Samsung Mobile 500 at Texas Motor Speedway, breaking a drought of 155 races.

Samsung Mobile 500

Lineup

Pos.	Driver	Make
1.	Tony Stewart	Chevrolet
2.	Sam Hornish Jr.	Dodge
3.	Greg Biffle	Ford
4.	Jimmie Johnson	Chevrolet
5.	Kasey Kahne	Ford

• Lineup | Photo Gallery

Qualifying Video

• Smoke on the pole
• A first for Hornish Jr.

Turning a lap at the 1.5-mile track in 28.224 seconds (191.327 mph), Stewart edged another surprise front-row starter, Sam Hornish Jr., who posted the second-fastest speed at 191.232 mph. The pole is the 11th of Stewart's Cup career, which began in 1999.

Greg Biffle (190.900 mph) qualified third, four-time defending Cup champion and current points leader Jimmie Johnson (190.880 mph) qualified fourth, and Kasey Kahne -- the week's big newsmaker thanks to his announced move from Richard Petty Motorsports to Hendrick Motorsports -- nailed down the fifth starting spot with a lap at 190.712 mph.

"I'm surprised," confessed Stewart, who will make his 400th start in the Cup Series on Sunday. "I'm not really much of a qualifier, but it shows what [crew chief] Darian Grubb and all the guys at Stewart-Haas ... how hard the work they've been doing, and [this is] the result."

Stewart was the 23rd driver to make a qualifying attempt, but he didn't think the relatively late draw gave him a significant advantage.

"It seems like the track cools down a lot during the session, and everybody worries about where you draw for your run," Stewart said. "We picked up time from practice, which was good, obviously, but it didn't seem like the conditions changed a lot [Friday], which was unusual."

If Stewart chooses the inside lane to start the race, Hornish will start directly in front of Johnson, who seldom misses an opportunity to recall his wreck at Texas during the Chase last fall. Contact from Hornish's Dodge sent Johnson's Chevrolet spinning into the inside wall.

Replays showed that a tap from David Reutimann propelled Hornish into Johnson, who finished 38th.

"I've basically put it out of my mind," Hornish said. "It was a tough deal. Obviously, we didn't want to be involved in anything, but you go back and you look at the tape -- we got hit from behind, and I don't know what else I could have done to have that deal turn out any differently."

Jeff Burton, Kyle Busch, Clint Bowyer, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Ryan Newman will start from positions six through 10, respectively.

David Stremme, Terry Cook and Johnny Sauter failed to qualify for the 43-car field.