April 2013 Pole Sitter: #18-Kyle Busch, 196.299mph, finished 1st

November 2012 Pole Winner: #48-Jimmie Johnson, 191.076mph, finished 1st

Track Pole Record: #18-Kyle Busch, 196.299, 4/12/2013

Oldest Pole Winner: Bill Elliott, 46 years, 6 months, 0 days, 4/08/2002

Youngest Pole Winner: Brian Vickers, 23 years, 0 months, 12 days, 11/05/2006

Fastest First Practice Speed: #56-Truex, Jr, 195.298 mph, scheduled to qualify 21st out of 43 drivers

Edwards wins Texas pole: #99-Carl Edwards won the pole for the AAA Texas 500 Sprint Cup Series race at Texas Motor Speedway with speed of 196.114mph for his 2nd pole of 2013 and 13th of his career.
#2-Keselowski is on the outside pole, followed by #48-Johnson, #27-Menard, #18-Busch, #20-Kenseth, #88-Earnhardt, Jr., #24-Gordon, #17-Stenhouse, Jr., and #9-Ambrose.
With only 43 cars at the track, everyone made the race.(11-1-2013)

Starting positions for the 2013 Sprint Cup Chase Drivers at Texas:
[listed by driver points position before the race]
1) #20-Matt Kenseth, 6th
2) #48-Jimmie Johnson, 3rd
3) #24-Jeff Gordon, 8th
4) #29-Kevin Harvick, 19th
5) #18-Kyle Busch, 5th
6) #15-Clint Bowyer, 26th
7) #88-Dale Earnhardt Jr., 7th
8) #16-Greg Biffle, 18th
9) #78-Kurt Busch, 31st
10) #99-Carl Edwards, 1st
11) #39-Ryan Newman, 13th
12) #22-Joey Logano, 12th
13) #5-Kasey Kahne, 11th
(11-1-2013)

Qualifying Fast Facts - Texas:
Carl Edwards won the Coors Light Pole Award for the 9th Annual AAA Texas 500 with a lap of 27.535 seconds, 196.114 mph.
This is his 13th pole in 335 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races.
This is his second pole and 18th top-10 start in 2013.
This is his first pole in 18 races at Texas Motor Speedway.
Brad Keselowski (second) posted his 15th top-10 start of 2013 and his fourth in 11 races at Texas Motor Speedway.
Jimmie Johnson (third) posted his 14th top-10 start at Texas Motor Speedway. It is his 21st in 34 races this season.(NASCAR Statistics)(11-1-2013)

Coverage of Qualifying for the AAA Texas 500 Sprint Cup Series race at Texas Motor Speedway is scheduled for Friday, November 1, 2013 at 4:40pm/et.
Television: ESPN2 at 4:30pm/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)
#22-Logano, 1st out to qualify, 194.517mph, starting 12th
#48-Johnson, 7th out, 195.943, starts 3rd
#2-Keselowski, 31st out, 196.100, starts 2nd
#99-Edwards, 40th out, 196.114, starts 1st

Friday practice for the AAA Texas 500 Sprint Cup Series race at Texas Motor Speedway is over after 90 scheduled minutes, the top-five, slowest and notes:
#56-Truex, Jr. 195.298
#48-Johnson 194.791
#99-Edwards 193.840
#17-Stenhouse, Jr. 193.791
#18-Busch 193.673
slowest: #87-Nemechek 183.362 & #7-Blaney 180.409.
notes: Qualifying is scheduled for this afternoon at 4:40pm/et and will be shown on ESPN2.
See fastest speeds, laps run on the Texas Practice 1 Speeds page (pdf).(11-1-2013)

Race info at: Race Info Page

Event Entry List

Qualifying Rules

Past Champions Provisional

All Time Sprint Cup Pole Winners

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

Qualifying order is by 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