NASCAR

• Kahne quickest at Pocono qualifying

  
  

  Long Pond, PA (Sports Network) - Kasey Kahne captured the pole for Sunday's Pocono 500 at the Pocono Raceway.

  The No.9 Budweiser Dodge circled the 2.5- mile tri-oval in 52.873 seconds (170.219 m.p.h.).

  The pole victory was Kahne's first of the season and 15th of his Sprint Cup career. The last time he started on the front row, Kahne won the Coca-Cola 600 from the second starting position.

  "My Dodge Charger is fast, we made hardly any adjustments from practice," said Kahne. "Our car is really well balanced and it felt perfect." Starting alongside Kahne will be two-time defending series champion Jimmie Johnson.

  Johnson was the only other driver the crack the 53-second mark (52.986).

  Mark Martin (53.287) and Regan Smith (53.335) will make up row two.

  Other drivers of note and their starting positions: Carl Edwards (sixth), Dale Earnhardt Jr.

  (seventh), Kyle Busch (10th), Kurt Busch (11th), Tony Stewart (12th), Matt Kenseth (13th), Dario Franchitti (14th), Jeff Burton (20th) and Jeff Gordon a distant (38th).

  When it comes to success at Pocono, here are some drivers with pretty good results.

  Stewart has one win and 13 top-10s in 18 starts, Ryan Newman has one win, two poles and six top-10s in 12 starts, Martin has three wins and 29 top-10s in 42 starts, Johnson has two wins and seven top-10s in 12 starts, Gordon has four wins and 21 top-10s in 30 starts and Bill Elliott owns five wins on the 2.5-mile tri-oval.

  But Denny Hamlin's record at Pocono surpasses all of those numbers. The No.11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota driver, who will start 16th, has made just four starts, but already owns two poles, two wins, four top-10s and an amazing average finish of 2.750. In his first-ever look at the track in the spring of 2006, he led 83 laps en route to a victory. Then in the fall race he proved it wasn't a fluke by leading another 151 laps and winning again. Last year Hamlin "struggled" finishing sixth and third in his two starts.

  There were 44 qualifying attempts sending just one driver home - J.J. Yeley.

  The green flag is scheduled to drop on Sunday around 2 p.m. (et).

  06/06 17:38:30 ET