LONG POND, Pa. - There were no crashes or bad luck for Kasey Kahne at Pocono Raceway.
Kahne put aside the disappointment of a wreck at Dover that cost him his first career win and rebounded Friday to set a track record and claim the pole for the Pocono 500.
Kahne turned a lap of 172.553 mph for his fourth pole of the season, adding to top qualifying efforts at Las Vegas, Darlington and California. He becomes the first rookie to win the pole at Pocono. Ward Burton in 1994 and Jimmie Johnson in 2002 started second in their rookie seasons.
"The car was perfect. I couldn't believe it," Kahne said. "We were a little bit off in practice, but the car was better, I drove a little better. It's a difficult track. It takes some time to learn."
His qualifying time broke Tony Stewart's record of 172.391 set in 2000.
Another rookie, Brian Vickers, was second at 172.308, and Joe Nemecheck was third in 172.183.
BUSCH: Martin Truex had no need to match the track record he set on the Nashville Superspeedway in April.
He was fast enough with his Chevrolet, taking the pole for today's Federated Auto Parts 300 with a lap of 163.596 mph on the 1.33-mile concrete oval in Gladeville, Tenn. It was Truex's second straight pole on this track, and fourth of the season.
He didn't start on the pole in April because of a crash in the final practice that forced him to a backup car and the back of the field.
"That's behind us," Truex said. "That was a couple of months ago. We've done good things since then, won races and poles."
Jason Leffler will start second, followed by points leader Kyle Busch.
INDYCAR: Dario Franchitti earned his first pole with a lap of 209.609. It's the slowest pole speed at Texas Motor Speedway and way down from Gil de Ferran's 222.864 for last season's finale.
Indianapolis 500 champion Buddy Rice qualified second for tonight's Bombardier 500 at 208.766.
The IRL mandated aerodynamic changes and smaller 3-liter engines as safety measures this season.
NO TEXAS TWO-STEP: The self-proclaimed second home of the Indy Racing League could lose the IndyCar Series season finale after this year.
Last month, Texas Motor Speedway was awarded a long-desired second Nextel Cup race. Beginning in 2005, TMS will hold its regular Cup race in early April with the new fall race the first weekend of November.
Texas has hosted two IRL races each year since 1998, a June night race following the Indianapolis 500 and the season finale.
Texas officials would like at least five or six weeks between events, and that would push the IndyCar race into September. That could be difficult to accomplish if the IRL expands its schedule, unless more races are run in March and April before the Indianapolis 500.
