Newman claims Loudon Cup pole

Ryan Newman surged to pole for the New Hampshire NASCAR Sprint Cup race with a run late in qualifying.

It looked unlikely that anyone would topple Kasey Kahne from his provisional pole position for most of the afternoon. But Newman's Stewart-Haas Chevrolet emerged from the qualifying line late in the session and did two laps good enough for pole. His best of 27.904 seconds and 136.497mph edged out Kahne's Hendrick Chevrolet by 0.085sec.

Jeff Gordon was one of the remaining threats to Newman, though that seemed unlikely when his first lap was only good enough for 23rd. The Hendrick man's second lap was far quicker, taking him to third ahead of Kurt Busch.

Martin Truex Jr. gave his troubled Michael Waltrip Racing team a slight lift by qualifying fifth, ahead of Joey Logano. Childress duo Paul Menard and Kevin Harvick fill row five, ahead of championship leader Matt Kenseth and Greg Biffle.

The latter was the only one of the Roush Fenway trio to run strongly. Carl Edwards and Ricky Stenhouse Jr start way down in 26th and 31st places.

Veteran Kenny Wallace stood in for Brian Vickers, while the Waltrip driver was on Nationwide duty at Kentucky and was 26th fastest.

Several driver line-ups in the lower half of the field have been shuffled for this weekend. Most notable changes were Michael McDowell moving from Phil Parsons Racing to Phoenix Racing and qualifying 27th, while rookie driver Kevin Swindell made his Cup debut for Swan and claimed 33rd.

Josh Wise failed to set a time after his Front Row Ford blew a tyre and crashed.