Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s fast lap of 28.761 seconds at 192.761 mph took the pole for Sunday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Kobalt Tools 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. He has seen qualifying success early this year as he also started on the outside pole for the Daytona 500.

The time was nearly a full tenth of a second faster than second place Kyle Busch who ran a  28.833 second lap. Juan Pablo Montoya will start the race third followed by Earnhardt’s Hendrick Motorsports teammates Mark Martin and Jeff Gordon in 4th and 5th, respectively.

The fourth Hendrick driver, 4-time and defending champion Jimmie Johnson, qualified 16th.

Kasey Kahne and Ryan Newman qualified 6th and 7th followed by David Reutimann in 9th who is sandwiched between new dads Elliott Sadler in 8th and Carl Edwards in 10th.

Aric Almirola, Terry Cook and Casey Mears failed to qualify for the race.

The Kobalt Tools 500 is scheduled to broadcast Sunday at 1pm ET on FOX.

 KOBALT TOOLS 500 QUALIFYING RESULTS

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