2013 March Pole Sitter: #18-Kyle Busch, 129.535, finished 2nd

2012 August Pole Sitter: none, set by rules book, fastest in 1st practice, #13-Casey Mears, finished 21st

Track Qualifying Record: Kyle Busch, March 15, 2013, 129.535mph

Oldest Pole Winner: Harry Gant, 54 years, 7 months, 17 days, 8/27/1994

Youngest Pole Winner: Joey Logano, 19 years, 9 months, 23 days, 3/19/2010

Fastest Happy Hour Practice Speed: #18-Busch, 128.253 mph, scheduled to qualify 19th out of 44 drivers

Fastest First Practice Speed: #34-Ragan, 125.322 mph, scheduled to qualify 29th out of 44 drivers

NOTE: not doing semi-live qualifying anymore. With NASCAR.com and FoxSports having real time qualifying and hits for my qualifying pages way down due to the availability of the real-time qualifying found elsewhere, not worth the time.
Will still post my unique qualifying results here, to help explain how drivers make the race.
For real time qualifying, check out:
NASCAR.com
FoxSports

Hamlin wins Bristol pole: #11-Denny Hamlin won the pole for the IRWIN Tools Night Race Sprint Cup Series race at Bristol Motor Speedway with speed of 128.969mph for his 4th pole of 2013 and 16th of his career. Hamlin has won three times from the pole in his career.
#78-Busch is on the outside pole, followed by #99-Edwards, #55-Vickers, #20-Kenseth, #22-Logano, #5-Kahne, #39-Newman, #56-Truex Jr. and #43-Almirola.
#51-Ryan Truex will make his Sprint Cup Series debut starting 18th.
Fastest in happy hour practice, #18-Kyle Busch, spun and wrecked on his qualifying run and will start 43rd/last. Missing the race was: #19-Mike Bliss (8-23-2013)

Qualifying Fast Facts - Bristol:
#11-Denny Hamlin won the Coors Light Pole Award for the 53rd Annual IRWIN Tools Night Race with a lap of 14.878 seconds, 128.969 mph.
This is his 16th pole in 279 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races.
This is his fourth pole and 14th top-10 start in 2013.
This is his first pole in 16 races at Bristol Motor Speedway.
#78-Kurt Busch (second) posted his 11th top-10 start of 2013 and his eighth in 26 races at Bristol Motor Speedway.
#99-Carl Edwards (third) posted his 10th top-10 start at Bristol Motor Speedway. It is his 12th in 24 races this season.
#10-Danica Patrick (22nd) was the fastest qualifying rookie.(NASCAR Statistics)(8-23-2013)

Coverage of Qualifying for the IRWIN Tools Night Race Sprint Cup Series race at Bristol Motor Speedway is scheduled for Friday, August 23, 2013 at 5:40pm/et.
TV: ESPN2 at 5:30pm/et
Radio: Performance Racing Network at goprn.com.
Scheduled Qualifying TV Re-Air: none

Pole Progression: (who had the pole first, who got it next and who ended up with it)
#13-Mears, 1st out to qualify, 125.798mph, starts 30th
#17-Stenhouse Jr., 2nd out, 126.278, starts 27th
#47-Labonte, 4th out, 126.578, starts 23rd
#2-Keselowski, 6th out, 127.741, starts 12th
#20-Kenseth, 7th out, 128.580, starts 5th
#55-Vickers, 16th out, 128.684, starts 4th
#99-Edwards, 17th out, 128.692, starts 3rd
#11-Edwards, 31st out, 128.969, starts 1st

Happy Hour practice for the IRWIN Tools Night Race Sprint Cup Series race at Bristol Motor Speedway is over, after 45 scheduled minutes, the top-five, slowest and notes:
#18-Busch 128.253
#78-Busch 128.099
#24-Gordon 127.031
#42-Montoya 127.031
#22-Logano 126.922
slowest: #33-Raines 119.648 & #32-Schrader 120.984
notes: #78-Busch smacked the wall midway thru practice and #30-Stremme smacked the wall as practice ended.
See fastest speeds, laps run, top-10 lap averages on the Bristol Happy Hour Practice Speeds page (pdf).(8-23-2013)

1st Friday practice for the IRWIN Tools Night Race Sprint Cup Series race at Bristol Motor Speedway is over, after 120 scheduled minutes, the top-five, slowest and notes:
#34-Ragan 125.322
#48-Johnson 125.134
#24-Gordon 124.922
#18-Busch 124.841
#2-Keselowski 124.776
slowest: #95-Speed 118.877 & #33-Raines 119.373
notes: there is a chance of rain this afternoon, so this practice could be important in the sense that the starting order would be set by the speeds from this practice. Top-36 fastest, then by former past champs, race attempts, then those seven set in 37-43 by speed.
See fastest speeds, laps run, top-10 lap averages on the Bristol Practice 1 Speeds page (pdf).(8-23-2013)

Race info at: Race Info Page

Event Entry List

Qualifying Rules

Past Champions Provisional

All Time Sprint Cup Pole Winners

Qualifying order is back to the old way, a random draw. Someone from the team draws a bingo like ball just before the first practice of the event.

NASCAR Sprint Cup Series qualifying rules for 2013: (except Daytona 500)
1) Starting positions 1 through 36 determined by the fastest qualifying speeds in descending order with the fast qualifier being first.
2) Starting positions 37 through 42 will be provisional starting positions that were not among the fastest 36 from qualifying. Provisional starting positions will be assigned to the highest ranked NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Championship car owners who are present at the Event and have entered the Event by the entry deadline and will be assigned in descending order until the six (6) provisional spots are filled.
3) If positions 37 - 42 are not filled by eligible car owners, the remaining positions will be assigned to car owners based on qualifying results.
NOTE: Once provisional starting positions have been assigned, the cars will be placed in the starting lineup by their qualifying speed in descending order with the fastest qualifying speed starting thirty-seventh.
4) If after starting positions 1 through 42 are assigned and there remains a car owner whose driver is the current or a former NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion who participated as a driver in the previous NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season and who was entered in the Event for that owner in that car prior to the entry deadline, a 43rd provisional starting position, the "Champion's Provisional", will be assigned to that car owner. The most recent NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Champion driver not previously qualifying for positions 1 through 42 will be assigned the position. 5) If the 43rd provisional starting position is not filled by an eligible NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion, it will be assigned to the next highest ranked car owner based on the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Championship car owner points.
6) If any starting positions remain unfilled, they will be assigned according to current calendar year NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Championship car owner point standings.
7) If any starting positions remain unfilled, they will be assigned to the car owners who have made the greatest number of qualifying attempts during the current season.
8) If any starting positions remain unfilled, they will be assigned to cars in order (1,2,3&etc.) in which their numbers were selected in the qualifying draw.
NOTE: Until the completion of three races of the current NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season, the final previous season NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Championship car owner point standings will be used for determining the starting positions for the highest ranked car owners as described above.

Practice held but Qualifying canceled: If the first practice is run, but qualifying is unable to take place and is canceled, the procedure for how teams are chosen to fill the field:
1) Top 36 in owners points.
2) Past Series Champions not in the top 36 of owners points.
3) Race attempts, ties broken by owners points rank.
The starting order is then set by 1st practice speed.
If two or more teams have no attempts, the team highest in qualifying draw gets in the race.
Provisionals are not used and not charged to past series champions.

Practice AND qualifying are cancelled [rain, etc], the following procedure is used:
1) For the first three races of the current season the top 36 teams in the previous season owner points would make the race [team doesn't have to had run all the races in that season]. After the first three races of the current season, the top 36 teams in the current season owners points, would make the race.
2) Then any winning driver or team owner from 2012 or 2013, as well as any past champions, make the field.
3) Then, for the first three races of the current season, any of the top 36 teams in owner points for this year would make the field.
4) Then it goes to qualifying attempts this year, with ties broken by owner points.

More info on Past Champions Provisional and rules and limits on my 2013 Past Champions Provisional Page