Biffle grabs the Bojangles’ Southern 500 pole

[media-credit name=”Brad Keppel” align=”alignright” width=”249″][/media-credit]Greg Biffle captured the pole for Saturday nights Sprint Cup Series Bojangles’ Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway with a lap of 180.257 MPH (27.281 SECS) for his second career pole at Darlington and the second of the season.

“It was a pretty uneventful lap. The car just had a ton of grip. It stuck to the race track really, really well. I felt like I was a little bit light down in Turns 1 and 2. I should have been a little bit quicker down there but I got a lot out of it in 3 and 4, so it was a great lap.” Biffle said.

Biffle was the next-to-last to hit the track for qualifying and knocked off the Hendrick Motorsports teammates of Jimmie Johnson and Kasey Kahne from the front row.

Johnson qualified second and Kahne qualified third.

“I’m proud of that lap. I felt like there was a little bit left in turns three and four that I didn’t get down there.” Johnson said.

“It was a lot better than where we were in practice. I think the guys did a nice job preparing a little better. We will have to see what happens in the race now. I think we definitely made some gains though.” Kahne said.

Ryan Newman qualified fourth and Kyle Busch qualified fifth.

Making her Sprint Cup debut at Darlington, Danica Patrick qualified 38th.

“It’s the best lap I’ve turned all day in the Cup car, so that’s a positive. We were three-quarters of a second quicker, so for me that’s good. I don’t necessarily find a lot in qualifying from practice. I’m a pretty methodical driver, so that was good. And it shows that the Go Daddy crew did a good job of giving me a good car. It shows me what these Cup guys can do when it comes time to put it on the board. I know the starting spot won’t be great, but it was a step forward for me and those are the things I’m looking for along the way.” Patrick said.