Biffle nabs Bristol pole

Greg Biffle's torrid start to his 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series campaign continued Friday as the Roush Fenway Racing driver scored the pole at Bristol Motor Speedway.

Biffle edged AJ Allmendinger by the smallest of margins, a mere 0.001sec around NASCAR's second-smallest track, at just 0.533 of a mile. Biffle was last on pole at Texas last fall, and set the fastest lap this time at a mark of 15.324 seconds and 125.215mph.

“I've got to pinch myself right now – I think I'm dreaming,” Biffle said. He's finished third in each of the first three races and leads the points standings by 10 over Kevin Harvick.

Allmendinger, seeking his first career win and now in the Penske Racing Dodge, is hoping to overcome a much slower start to the year. He enters the race 29th in points, and last week suffered from a fuel pickup problem.

“As soon as we got back [from Las Vegas] on Monday morning, they were working hard on it,” Allmendinger said. “They figured out the problem, and they went to Nashville [for a test session] with [driver] Parker Kligerman and just ran miles after miles, making sure we didn't have any problems with it brought that here to Bristol.

“I guess we'll find out after Sunday if it's completely solved, but I have confidence that it is.”

Ryan Newman, Jeff Gordon and Brad Keselowski – the August Bristol winner and Allmendinger's Penske teammate – complete the top five of the grid.

Only rookie Timmy Hill failed to make the 43-car field, and Robby Gordon withdrew.