NASCAR At Charlotte: Biffle, Martin start on front row

Greg Biffle set a track record Thursday with a lap of 193.708 mph to earn the pole for Saturday night's Bank of America 500 from Charlotte Motor Speedway, the fifth race in NASCAR's Chase for the Sprint Cup championship.

Biffle is currently ninth in the Chase standings, 43 points behind leader Brad Keselowski. Keselowski is starting from the 10th row at the No. 20 position. Starting on the front row with Biffle is 53-year-old Mark Martin, who is making his 850th career start.

Notable by his absence this weekend will be Dale Earnhardt Jr., who is sitting out the next two races due to a concussion sustained last weekend at Talladega. Earnhardt is 11th in the Chase standings.

The race starts at 7:46 p.m. ET and will be televised by ABC. Drivers start two to a row. Here is the starting grid for tonight's race, with the Chase drivers listed in bold:

1. Greg Biffle
2. Mark Martin
3. Ryan Newman
4. Clint Bowyer
5. Jimmie Johnson
6. Martin Truex Jr.
7. Matt Kenseth
8. Kyle Busch
9. Denny Hamlin
10. Kasey Kahne
11. Kevin Harvick
12. Joey Logano
13. Jeff Gordon
14. Sam Hornish Jr.
15. Bobby Labonte
16. Trevor Bayne
17. Aric Almirola
18. Marcos Ambrose
19. Carl Edwards
20. Brad Keselowski
21. Kurt Busch
22. Juan Pablo Montoya
23. Scott Speed
24. Paul Menard
25. David Ragan
26. Regan Smith
27. Casey Mears
28. Mike Bliss
29. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
30. Jamie McMurray
31. David Stremme
32. Tony Stewart
33. Michael McDowell
34. David Reutimann
35. JJ Yeley
36. David Gilliland
37. Landon Cassill
38. AJ Allmendinger
39. Jeff Burton
40. Timmy Hill
41. Travis Kvapil
42. Dave Blaney
43. Reed Sorenson

DNQ: Joe Nemechek, Josh Wise, Scott Riggs, Cole Whitt.