Brian Vickers won pole position for NASCAR's Carfax 400 at Michigan International Speedway Friday, his sixth pole of the season. Vickers has won the pole for three straight Michigan races, most recently in June. He clocked a lap of 187.242 mph (301.32 kph). The Michigan race winner in June, Mark Martin, qualified second, followed by Juan Pablo Montoya, Jimmie Johnson and Martin Truex Jr. With four races to go before the Chase for the Championship, Vickers was 14th in the series points standings – 96 points out of the 12th-place cutoff. Chase contenders Kurt Busch, Ryan Newman and Kasey Kahne qualified in the top 10 – but Kahne will have to start Sunday's race at the back of the pack because his team changed engines.
