Like the old racing cliché Joey Logano’s Toyota was fast right off the trailer at Bristol Motor Speedway.

Logano, who was also fastest in the practice session explained: “To pick up from what we had in practice was key for us. The car was quite a bit freer than what we had in practice. My car was tight when we ended practice and I thought I was pretty good.”

The irony was that the second-year driver has found his way around the high-banked, half-mile oval difficult and had not expected his first pole at this track.

“I never thought it would come here. This is one of my tougher race tracks and I thought I really sucked here. I guess I don’t know,” he added.

Oddly enough Kurt Busch was a bit surprised that he claimed the second fastest time. “Overall, we exceeded our expectations today. I didn’t think that we’d be sitting on the front row and stopping by the media center after our qualifying run but, hey, here we are,” he said.

Then Busch, who drove a Dodge added: “I’m pleasantly surprised that we ran the lap time that we did. I’m even more surprised by the lap time that Joey Logano laid down.”

Perhaps the biggest surprise of the day was Dave Blaney who qualified third in the tiny Prism Team, Toyota. “It’s a big accomplishment to come here and be right at the top of the board. Pretty funny, but pretty proud,” he said.

Ironically, in spite of the great effort expended in qualifying he will likely become a start and park, meaning he will run just a few laps to take the purse and then park the car in the pits. The team doesn’t have enough sponsorship to run the entire race.

Blaney explained: “If we aren’t going to race all day, then there is that possibility. It’s whatever the team decides. It’s a hard thing all the way around .”

Four-time Champion, Jimmie Johnson overcame a spin in practice to qualify fourth in a Chevrolet. "We had a game plan of what we thought the track would do and unfortunately it didn't do that. The last two times we have been here it did.

"I am very proud of the effort today. We came with a plan, we made the car better, we followed our plan and have a good qualifying effort. It has been frustrating for all of us to try and learn this race track,” he said.

The fastest Ford driver was Matt Kenseth.

The two drivers involved in the Atlanta spin and flip wreck, Carl Edwards and Brad Keselowski, were eighth and 36th respectively.

Max Papis and Mike Bliss failed to qualify.