Patrick Carpentier was by far the happiest man in the entire northeast after capturing his first career Coors Light Pole Award. The French-Canadian driver will make only his seventeenth career Cup Series Sunday at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway and this week he will do it from the front row after.

Since Carpentier's No. 10 Dodge is well outside the top-35 in owner points, Carpentier was one of the cars that was forced to make the show on time - and he did so in a big way. "I go so hard because I don't want to miss a race," an ecstatic Carpentier said following his successful run. On of the nicest guys in the garage, fans in the grandstands continually cheered for the rookie driver after his fast lap of 29.349 seconds.

The last time the former open-wheel started a race from the top spot was in 2004 at Laguna Seca in a Champ Car Series race.

After a long rain delay the track cooled off, loosened up and speeds picked up tremendously.

"I was happy it was going to rain because we were going to be in the race," Carpentier joked. "Honestly, if I had won the first pole on a road course I wouldn't be as happy,'' he said later on. "I want to do well on the ovals because that is where they do most the racing in this series.''

Bobby Labonte found some magic out there after the rain went away to take the top spot - only to be edged out Carpentier.

"We unloaded pretty good and didn't make any changes during practice that made anythinany better, just more stagnant," Labonte explained after his run.

Since recently announcing his contract extension with Petty Enterprises, Labonte has shown new life. The veteran driver started last week's event in Sonoma from the 4th-spot; however electrical problems relegated the team to 39th.

Another go-or-go home driver that shocked many during Friday's qualifying session was Haas CNC Racing's Scott Riggs. Back in the No. 66 this week, Riggs was able to lay down a fast lap of 29.531 seconds, good enough for third place - last week at Infineon Riggs jumped over to the No. 70 while Max Papis drove the No. 66.

Kevin Harvick will roll off Sunday from the fourth-spot after a pretty wild lap. Still slick from the rain put down earlier, Harvick slid off Turn 2 but never took his foot off the throttle. "I probably got in the throttle just a bit too hard," Harvick explained. At the time Harvick had beat Reed Sorenson for the top spot, but unfortunately for the driver of the No. 29 Shell/Pennzoil Chevrolet the time did not stand.

While Carpentier was the happiest man in Loudon, N.H., Reed Sorenson was probably the most nervous. After making a fast lap good enough for the top spot, Sorenson was forced to sweat it out as the rain came. Since the No. 41 Dodge is currently 35th in owner points, had qualifying been rained out Sorenson would have dropped from first to 35th in the starting order. Luckily for Sorenson the track drying efforts were a success and Sorenson will start Sunday's race from the 6th-spot.

Dario Franchitti responded after surprisingly missing last week's road course race in Sonoma by qualifying in the 7th-spot, right behind his Chip Ganassi Racing teammate.

One week after raising eyebrows in an impressive run, Marcos Ambrose was one of only two drivers to fail to make Sunday's race - the other was Tony Raines.

Coverage of Sunday's Lenox Industrial Tools 301 is scheduled to start at 12:30 p.m. ET on your local TNT and MRN stations. Be sure to check back to HardcoreRaceFans.com for all of Sunday's results.