Greg Biffle claims Charlotte pole in record-breaking fashion

Greg Biffle will have to wait another year to win his first Sprint Cup title, most likely, but he can certainly be stout down the stretch in 2012. He was plenty stout Thursday night, winning the pole for Saturday's Bank of America 500 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway. He broke Elliott Sadler's seven-year-old track record in the process with a lap of 27.88 seconds.

Mark Martin and Ryan Newman also eclipsed Sadler's old record as well and will start second and third. Clint Bowyer will start fourth, and Jimmie Johnson will start fifth. Martin Truex Jr., Matt Kenseth, Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin, and Kasey Kahne rounded out the top-10 qualifiers.

As far as the other Chase drivers go, Kevin Harvick was 11th, Jeff Gordon was 13th, point leader Brad Keselowski was 20th, and defending champ Tony Stewart was a miserable 32nd. Regan Smith, substituting for the injured Dale Earnhardt Jr., qualified 26th-quickest.

Unadilla's David Ragan was 25th in his No. 34 Front Row Motorsports Ford, while Peachtree City's Reed Sorenson was 43rd. Sorenson did make the race because the four drivers slower than him were also go-or-go-home drivers. The unfortunate quartet of drivers who will be flipping burgers Saturday instead of flipping switches to fire up their race cars are Joe Nemechek, Josh Wise, Scott Riggs, and Cole Whitt.

Visit NASCAR.com to see the full Bank of America 500 starting lineup.