Kasey Kahne nailed down his 16th career NASCAR Sprint Cup pole position Friday and his first on a road course in qualifying for the Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Infineon Raceway.
Kahne turned a lap at 92.153 miles an hour to edge out Jimmie Johnson, who will share the front row for Sunday's race after a run of 92.040.
"We're real happy with our qualifying run," Kahne said. "It was very similar to our second-to-last run in practice earlier. We tightened the car back up a little more and it felt real good. Hopefully that will give us something to base our combination off of for tomorrow's practice and be ready to go on Sunday."
Two drivers -- Marcos Ambrose and Max Papis -- qualified for the race and will be making their first-ever NASCAR Sprint Cup starts. Ambrose was seventh fastest at 91.819 and Papis will start 28th after a run at 90.870.
Juan Pablo Montoya, who won last year's Infineon Raceway stop on the Cup tour, will start 21st.
Jeff Gordon, who has five victories in Cup competition at Infineon, starts fifth.
Eric Holmes won the pole for Saturday's Bennett Lane Winery 200 for NASCAR Camping World Series West cars with a lap at 91.805, followed by veteran P.J. Jones at 91.286.
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