On Friday afternoon in Fontana, California the Sprint Cup drivers took to the track, qualifying for Sunday's Pepsi 500.

Five of the first six drivers were Chase drivers and of those drivers, Denny Hamlin sat on the pole with a lap of 183.8 mph. That lap was never contested and Hamlin will lead the field to green on Sunday.

 Dale Earnhardt Jr. whose car looked good in the first practice struggled in qualifying with a lap of 179.1mph. He will have to drive his way through the pack starting in 38th.

One driver who had a very good qualifying run was Richard Petty Motorsports driver A.J. Allmendinger who laid down a fast lap 181.4 mph. Allmendinger will start 13th on Sunday and is the highest starting Dodge.

Kevin Harvick continued his team's turnaround with a strong qualifying run that had him starting seventh on Sunday.

The king of pole's in 2009 Mark Martin, who has seven going into today's qualifying did not win the pole but did qualify ninth.

Juan Pablo Montoya who is considered the dark horse by many smacked the wall pretty hard during his qualifying lap but still will start in the fourth position.

David Reutimann was the first and only driver to really threaten Hamlin for the pole he was able to lay down a lap of 183.1 mph. His fast lap earned him a start on the outside pole.

During post qualifying inspection Reutimann's time was disallowed for illegal rear shocks. Instead of starting on the outside pole, he will start 42nd.

 Kyle Busch has been battling the flu will go to the rear on Sunday after losing an engine during the first practice. They qualified 19th.

The final threat for the pole was Jimmie Johnson, but Johnson was unable to snag the pole. He ran a lap of 183.6 mph good enough for starting third on Sunday.

For the rest of the Chasers starting in the top 12, Greg Biffle will start second, Jeff Gordon in 10th, Carl Edwards in 11th.

The rest of the Chasers starting with Tony Stewart, will start 20th, Kurt Busch in 24th, Kasey Kahne in 25th, Brian Vickers in 33rd and Ryan Newman in 37th.

A interesting observationduring qualifying. At first you would think that an early draw would be a disadvantage to the drivers, but as we saw some of the later qualifiers really struggled with their cars.

One of the constant comments that we heard throughout qualifying was the track lack of grip and turn one. The drivers who could find grip during their qualifying they ran better laps.

Track position is so important on Sunday, that a solid qualifying run will go a long way on Friday.

For the Chasers it's even more important to start in or near the top 10.  For seven of those drivers they accomplished just that.

For the remaining five drivers, Saturday's two practices will be very important for them.

Of the go or go homers only Mike Wallace and Tony Raines will be heading back east tonight.

Now all the teams look to Saturday and getting the cars ready for Sunday.