Brad Keselowski shoved NASCAR’s top ten drivers into the background by winning his first Sprint Cup pole on Friday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

The Michigan-born driver has had a year of qualified success - with his debut with Penske Racing. He’s leading NASCAR’s second-tier series, but, hasn’t been outstanding on the senior circuit and he knows it.

“Hell, we don’t have a top 10! We have work to do. It’s been a great year on the Nationwide side, leading the points. It’s been really frustrating this year (in Sprint Cup),” he said.

Driving a Dodge he set a qualifying record of 133.572 mph at the flat one-mile oval also known as the Magic Mile.

Clint Bowyer, himself a bit of a surprise winner here previously, was second fastest at 133.464 mph, the fastest of the 12 Chase drivers.

“The guys really made an awesome adjustment there between practices. We were off a little bit and just down on grip; tightened up a little bit and made an air pressure adjustment and it really made it good,” Bowyer, the 12th seeded driver, said.

Tony Stewart was third fastest (but sixth seeded in the Chase) followed by the Earnhardt Ganassi Racing teammates, Jamie McMurray and Jamie McMurray, respectively, as Chevrolet took second through fifth spots.

AJ Allmendinger had the fastest Ford in sixth spot; while David Reutimann had the fastest Toyota in seventh.

While the 12 seeded Chase drivers were the cream of the crop in the first 26-races, they underperformed – in qualifying at least – with only four of them in the top ten.

Kyle Busch was the third-fastest Chase driver in the nine spot followed by Carl Edwards.

Denny Hamlin, who came to the track seeded in first place, qualified 22nd.
The biggest surprise had to be four-time and defending Cup Champ, Jimmie Johnson who had a career worst qualifying effort of 25th.

As for Stewart, a two-time Cup Champion, he thinks that the top drivers will get to the front no matter where they start.

“It's the same thing we do every week here. This is no different than everything that everybody has done to get in the Chase. So, you're seeing the same thing that we've always seen here. There are always guys that race a lot better than they qualify and just miss it in qualifying. Its two laps to hit or miss, but you've got 300 laps to make it right for the race,” Stewart said.

Jeff Green and Johnny Sauter failed to qualify.