Martin Truex Jr. beat NASCAR Sprint Cup title contender Kurt Busch to pole position for Sunday's Chase race at Dover International Speedway.
The Michael Waltrip Racing driver set a fastest lap of 22.641 seconds at an average speed of 159.004mph, beating Penske's Busch by just three thousandths of a second to claim his first pole position of the season at the track where he got his only Cup victory thus far, back in 2007.
"We've had a really good car the last couple of times we've been here," said Truex. "The team did an awesome job tuning it up for qualifying. Hopefully tomorrow we'll put it all together but it was just a great lap."
He added: "We worked through a lot of things yesterday in practice and felt like the car was good. Then we went to the second practice and fought some things. But I think we found a little bit of an issue in the car and we'll have it dialed in."
Chase contenders ended up spread through the 43-car field, although four of the 12 title hopefuls claimed top-six starting spots.
Richard Childress Racing's Paul Menard, who had been fastest in the opening practice on Friday and among the most consistent in the second one, set the third fastest time of the session after running last in the order.
Behind Menard, Roush Fenway's Carl Edwards was fourth, Joe Gibbs Racing's Kyle Busch fifth while six-time Dover winner Jimmie Johnson was sixth fastest, his best result in qualifying during the Chase so far.
Richard Petty's AJ Allmendinger was seventh ahead of JTG Daugherty's Bobby Labonte, who held provisional pole for a good portion of the session. Red Bull's Kasey Kahne and Roush's Greg Biffle, a two-time Dover winner, rounded out the top 10.
Chase leader Tony Stewart, who struggled during Friday's practice, had yet another lackluster qualifying effort, finishing 28th, which will be his worst starting position since the playoff series started. Even farther back than the two-time champion was Hendrick Motorsports' Jeff Gordon, who was 34th fastest, his worst in qualifying during the whole season.
Josh Wise was the fastest of the non-guaranteed drivers in 26th, while Mike Skinner was the only driver who failed to qualify after slapping the wall during his run.