Kahne paces RPM sweep of Kansas front row

KANSAS CITY, Kan. -- Kasey Kahne knew he'd run a good lap Friday at Kansas Speedway, but he was pretty sure it wouldn't hold up for the pole.

He was wrong.

Price Chopper 400

Lineup

Pos.	Driver	Make
1.	Kasey Kahne	Ford
2.	Paul Menard	Ford
3.	Jeff Gordon	Chevrolet
4.	Joey Logano	Toyota
5.	Greg Biffle	Ford

Lineup | Practice 1 speeds

The 11th driver to make a qualifying attempt at the 1.5-mile speedway, Kahne covered the distance in 30.920 seconds (174.644 mph) to claim the top starting spot for Sunday's Price Chopper 400, the third race in the Chase.

"I got loose in [Turns] 3 and 4 and gave up some time," Kahne said after climbing from his car. "I don't think it'll be the pole, but it was a good lap."

It was better than Kahne thought.

In winning his third pole of the season and the 19th of his career, the driver of the No. 9 Ford edged Richard Petty Motorsports teammate Paul Menard (174.469 mph), who will start on the outside of the front row. Kahne and Menard led a parade of non-Chase drivers into the top 10 on the grid.

Jeff Gordon (third fastest at 174.430 mph), Greg Biffle (fifth at 174.255 mph), Matt Kenseth (eighth at 173.902 mph) and Kurt Busch (ninth at 173.874 mph) are the only Chase drivers in the top 10. Points leader Denny Hamlin will start 12th, and four-time defending Cup champion Jimmie Johnson -- currently second in the standings -- rolls off 21st.

Kahne and Menard will leave Richard Petty Motorsports at the end of the season -- Kahne to drive for Red Bull Racing for a year before moving to Hendrick Motorsports in 2012, and Menard to drive for Richard Childress Racing.

"To me, it shows that myself and Paul and our teams are still really interested in running strong and not backing down at all just because we have other things we are going to do in the future," Kahne said. "At the same time, it shows that RPM is giving us great race cars. Roush Yates is giving us great engines. We have the package -- we just need to put it all together."

Gordon was elated with his best starting position since he qualified second at Darlington in May.

"It's been a long time since we've qualified well," Gordon said. "We've been trying really hard to qualify better, and I think it has been impacting our races. I feel like we race better when we qualify up front."

Joe Nemechek, Mike Bliss and Jason Leffler failed to qualify for the 43-car field.