Martin Truex Jr. topped Kasey Kahne in Saturday's qualifying to capture the pole for the Pep Boys Auto 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

Truex turned a lap around the 1.54-mile oval at 184.149 m.p.h. (30.106 seconds) in his No.1 Dale Earnhardt Inc. Chevrolet for his second pole of the season and the third of his Sprint Cup Series career. He won the pole for the season-opening Daytona 500 in February.

"It's been kind of a tough season for us, but we've been working hard and battling hard, and I think it kind of shows the character of guys on my team and how hard they work," Truex said. "Hopefully we can finish the deal off this weekend for them. I sure would like to get them in victory lane before the year is out."

Truex is currently 23rd in points, with his best finish this season a sixth- place run in May at Darlington. His only Cup victory so far came in June 2007 at Dover.

After spending his first four full seasons with DEI in Cup competition, Truex will leave the racing organization at the end of the year and head over to Michael Waltrip Racing to drive a Toyota for the 2010 Cup campaign.

Kahne qualified 0.107 seconds behind Truex to grab the outside pole.

"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," Kahne said. "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 Truex."

Hendrick Motorsports teammates Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon will start third and fourth, while Kyle Busch will roll off fifth.

Kurt Busch, who won at Atlanta in March, qualified sixth, followed by Mark Martin, Brian Vickers, David Stremme and Denny Hamlin.

Busch currently holds the 13th position in points, and trails 12th-place Matt Kenseth by 34 markers with just two races to go before the "Chase for the Sprint Cup" championship begins. Kenseth qualified 15th.

Carl Edwards will start 14th, despite driving with a broken foot. Edwards fractured his right foot while playing Frisbee earlier this week.

Regan Smith, Patrick Carpentier and Tony Raines failed to qualify.

Atlanta will host the Labor Day weekend Cup event for the first time this year. Darlington hosted the Southern 500 the first weekend in September each year from 1959 to 2003, before California held the date for the last five seasons.

Sunday's 500-mile race is scheduled to start just after 7:30 p.m. (et).

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