Continuing to show the strength of Stewart-Haas Racing, Ryan Newman captured his fifth Coca-Cola 600 pole during Thursday night’s qualifying session. The driver of the No. 39 posted a fast lap of 28.651 seconds at a speed of 188.475 mph. The ‘Rocketman’ has sat on the pole for the Coke 600 every other year since 2001 and Thursday’s pole run continued that trend.

"I really enjoy the race track," Newman said of Lowe's Motor Speedway. "I've always said that I enjoy banked race tracks. This is one of the best, fastest banked race tracks out there. I've had fast race cars with Penske Racing and now here with Stewart-Haas Racing. I've just been blessed with fast race cars. I've always told my crew chief, whoever it was at the time, if you give me a straight arrow I'll shoot it straight, but don't expect me to shoot a crooked arrow to the pole. They've done a very good job for me."

Rolling off beside Newman will be last year’s pole winner Kyle Busch. The driver of the No. 18 M&Ms Toyota posted a lap just of 28.684 seconds at a speed of 188.258mph, just .033 seconds off Newman’s pole speed.

“I wish it was a little bit better,” Busch said of his qualifying lap. “It was a great run for the M&Ms Camry. I wasn’t really expecting that, but very proud of the effort Steve [Addington, crew chief] and all these guys did today with trying to get this thing where it was capable of running a fast lap time like that.”

Three-time Coca-Cola 600 winner Jeff Gordon will roll off third following a qualifying lap of 28.694 seconds at 188.193mph. Hendrick Motorsports teammates Mark Martin and Jimmie Johnson rounded out the top-5, putting four Hendrick-affiliated cars in the top-5.

Defending race winner Kasey Kahne posted the sixth fastest lap, while Mike Bliss – who was the fastest of the go-or-go-home cars, Brian Vickers, Juan Pablo Montoya and veteran Bill Elliott rounded out the top-10.

Making his 800th career Cup Series start on Sunday, Elliott was clearly pleased with his qualifying run.

“The lap was one of those deals where you kind of hold your breath and go for it,” Elliott told HardcoreRaceFans.com following his qualifying run. “It was good. The track had a lot of grip when we went, things were good and that’s what we need to continue to work on. I’m glad for the guys, they needed this.”

Forty-seven cars made qualifying runs and three drivers – Mike Garvey, Todd Bodine and David Starr – failed to make the show.

COMPLETE QUALIFYING RESULTS

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