Martin Truex Jr. Managed to Snatch the Pole Out of The Hands of Kasey Kahne at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

Martin Truex Jr., the 33rd NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver to make his qualifying attempt, laid down a 30.106 lap with a speed of 184.149 on the 1.54-mile oval to snatch the pole out of the hands of Kasey Kahne at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

"I feel great. I just want to thank all the guys on my team," said Truex Jr. "They did an awesome job today. We unloaded with the car and kind of struggled for a little while, but we hit on some things and worked on it throughout practice and then we had a half-hour break and made a lot more changes. And in that second practice, the car really came to life."

Kahne looked to be in the catbird seat when none of the Cup chase contenders, or those who have a habit of laying down fast times on qualifying day, knocked the Dodge driver off the top of the scoreboard. Instead it was Truex Jr. in his Guitar Hero Chevrolet who had the honors of landing his second pole in 2009.

"The track picked up a second. So you really never know what you have until you go out there. You just go out and drive it down in there and hope it does what you expect," Truex said "Today, ours did. So I'm just proud of the guys. Kevin 'Bono' Manion (crew chief) made some air pressure adjustments out on pit road right before I went out and he hit it right on the head. So great job by him."

Truex Jr in his Earnhardt Ganassi Racing Chevrolet was the 23rd racer after Kahne took the top of the speedchart away from the defending champion. Kahne's lap in his Richard Petty Motorsports Dodge was at 30.213 (183.497 mph), 0.107 seconds off the hot lap set by Truex Jr but 0.130 seconds faster than Jimmie Johnson for his front row start for tomorrow's race. Immediately after taking his qualifying run, Kahne said he thought, "it would be a top five, top 10 for sure".

"This team is doing a great job," Kahne said. "I was really happy with the lap, picking up a lot from where we were in practice as far as the qualifying side of things. I thought I could have got a little bit more in the middle of (Turns) Three and Four and back to the start/finish, but I still don't think I would have gone as fast as (Martin) Truex. He ran a great lap. It will be nice to start on the front row. It's a big race for us tomorrow night."

Hendrick Motorsports' driver of the No. 48 Chevrolet was the second to take to the track for the late afternoon's qualifying runs. Johnson's best was a 30.236 (183.358 mph).

"I got pretty aggressive out there to make stuff happen. It was a good lap. I know it wasn't good enough for the pole as conditions just kept getting better but our goal for going out that early was to try and be in the top and we did that with this Kobalt Tools Chevrolet," said Johnson.

Starting alongside his his teammate on the second row will be Jeff Gordon with a 30.296 (182.995 mph). "This is Atlanta and it is a big, fast race track. The track has cooled down a little bit. You have got to be pretty aggressive here when it comes to qualifying," he said.

The Busch brothers from Las Vegas, NV, will start on the third row. Kyle Busch, the younger of the two, turned his best at 30.333 (182.771 mph) in his Alex Job Racing Toyota. Older brother Kurt Busch in his Penske Racing Dodge was 0.234 seconds slower with a time of 30.340 (182.729 mph).

Sunday's race is the second one this year at the Atlanta speedway and the penultimate one that will set the cut for the top 12 that will be in the Chase for the Cup. Richmond will be the final one for those to make it into the Chase to run for the championship in the 10 races remaining.

It is crunch time. Tony Stewart is already in the top 12, still leading the points. Stewart qualified 12th in his Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet. Others in the top 12 point posistions thus far include the two Hendrick drivers on the second row. Fourth in the points, Denny Hamlin in his JGR Toyota slots 10th on the grid and Roush Fenway Racing's Carl Edwards put his Ford 14th fastest even with a broken right foot. Kurt Busch is sixth in the points and starts sixth for the night race.

"My foot is good. I'll know more after the race tonight in that Save-a-Lot Fusion, but the good thing is that Aflac Ford Fusion is fast. It wasn't super-fast in qualifying," said Edwards. "I was a little reserved there. I wanted to do better than my 32nd earlier this year, but it looks like we'll have a decent starting spot. It's really fast in race trim and I'm just excited to run the race for the Aflac Cancer Center and the kids that designed the car. That's pretty cool."

Ryan Newman was back in 23rd while Greg Biffle is 26th on the grid. Juan Pablo Montoya was 22nd fastest and Mark Martin is up on the fourth row, starting 7th. Kahne is 11th in the points and no doubt hopes to turn around his front row into a victory tomorrow night. Starting 15th and needing to add points to make the Chase cut is Matt Kenseth.

In today's visit with the media, Kenseth commented: "We've got to beat all the guys we're around to get in. There are about five or six guys that are really close in the points and whoever outperforms the rest of them will make it in, so we've just got to go out and run as hard as we can and hope our results will be good enough."

The driver changes coming into Atlanta include Bobby Labonte in the TRG Motorsports Chevrolet this weekend qualified 25th. The driver whose seat he is in was faster in his ride Atlanta; David Gilliland in the Wood Brothers Racing Ford will start 17th. Rookie Erik Darnell, now in the Yates Racing No. 96, instead of Labonte, made it onto the grid based on using the owner points provisional

The night race at Atlanta Motor Speedway 500 will start at 7:30pm EDT.