brad keselowski won the pole for the race with a time of 27.678 and a speed of . he said afterwards that he was "still kind of shaking. i’ve always felt like darlington is the hardest qualifying session of the year, but this is harder. you’re right on the fringe of being wide open.” after qualifying 14th, dale earnhardt, jr. said that his car "was tight in the middle of 3 and 4 all day, but we were trying to work on it ... and i just barely missed. i liked some things i saw today, and i think the car has good speed.” casey mears went to a backup car after hitting the wall in qualifying. as a result, he started the race from the rear of the field.