Track:  Charlotte Motor Speedway, 1.5-mile oval, Concord, North Carolina
Pole Winner: Tony Stewart

Pole Time:  28.131 seconds

Pole Speed:  191.959 miles per hour
TV/Radio: ESPN2/PRN/SIRIUSXM

No. 34 Tastykake Ford Qualifying Position: 33rd

No. 38 Long John Silver's Ford Qualifying Position: 38th
No. 55 Ingersoll Rand Ford Qualifying Position: 34th

The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races at home this weekend as Charlotte Motor Speedway hosts the Bank of America 500 Saturday night under the lights.  Front Row Motorsports puts some new colors on the track as the teams welcomes Tastykake as the sponsor of the No. 34 Ford Fusion driven by David Gilliland, and Ingersoll Rand as the sponsor of the No. 55 Ford Fusion driven by Travis Kvapil.

Teams unloaded and prepped for practice on Thursday morning during on-and-off sprinkles, and hit the track under partly cloudy conditions for a mid-afternoon practice.  All three Front Row entries found decent speed, concentrating primarily on qualifying set-ups.

Forty-six cars lined up for qualifying a few hours later under the nighttime sky and cooler track conditions.  The work in practice paid off, with all three Front Row cars earning a spot on the starting grid for Saturday's race.  Gilliland led the team, qualifying the Tastykake Ford 33rd.  Kvapil and Yeley both earned positions based on their time-trial speeds, qualifying 34th and 38th respectively.

Tony Stewart claimed his first pole of the season, just barely edging out Matt Kenseth (by .006 seconds).  Josh Wise, Scott Speed and Geoffrey Bodine failed to qualify for the race.

The field now has two late-afternoon practices on Friday to get their race set-ups in order.  ESPN2 will air both sessions.  All the action of the Bank of America 500 begins Saturday night at 7:30 p.m. ET on ABC.

David Gilliland

Comments from No. 34 Tastykake team driver David Gilliland after qualifying at Charlotte:
 

J.J. Yeley

Comments from No. 38 Long John Silver's Ford team driver J.J. Yeley after qualifying at Charlotte:
 

"The Long John Silver's Ford was tight.  I think we expected the racetrack to pick up a lot more speed than what we saw in practice.  I think because the temperatures are cooler, it's not as dramatic.  So, we made a couple changes in packer just to make sure we didn't hit the racetrack.  I know from what the No. 55 did, that tightened them up earlier, and it just hurt me in Turns 1 and 2 and the car didn't get rotated.  Obviously the lap was fast enough to get in the race, but disappointed we lost about a tenth of a second."

Travis Kvapil

Comments from No. 55 Ingersoll Rand Ford team driver Travis Kvapil after qualifying at Charlotte:
 

"We had a solid car all day.  It's kind of cool having Ingersoll Rand colors on the car.  It looks great on our Ford Fusion.  Derrick (crew chief Derrick Finley) and the guys at Front Row just did a great job.  Like I said, we had a really solid car off the truck.  Just a little too right there to go really fast.  It was the best we ran all day, but there's more out there.  But, for our group of cars, we're solidly in the field and that's what we're looking for."

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