2012 March Pole Sitter: #16-Greg Biffle, 125.215, finished 13th

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

Track Qualifying Record: #12-Ryan Newman, March 2003, 128.709mph, 14.908 secs

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

NOTE: not doing semi-live qualifying anymore. WIth NASCAR.com and FoxSports having realtime qualifying and hits for my qualifying pages way down due to the availabilty 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 Realtime qualifying, check out:
NASCAR.com
FoxSports

Kyle Busch wins Bristol pole: #18-Kyle Busch won the pole for the Food City 500 Sprint Cup Series race at Bristol Motor Speedway with speed of 129.535mph for his 1st pole of 2013, his first at Birstol, and 11th of his career.The pole speed is a new track record, breaking the old record set by Ryan Neman in March 2003. The top 3 drivers broke the old record. #5-Kahne will start 2nd, followed by #11-Hamlin, #55-Vickers, #27-Menard, #1-McMurray. #2-Keselowski, #14-Stewart, #56-Truex, Jr., and #22-Logano. Missing the race was: #44-Riggs.(3-15-2013)

Qualifying Fast Facts - Bristol:
Kyle Busch won the Coors Light Pole Award for the 53rd Annual Food City 500 with a track record qualifying lap of 14.813 seconds, 129.535 mph.
This is his 11th pole in 297 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races.
This is his first pole and third top-10 start in 2013.
This is his first pole in 17 races at Bristol Motor Speedway. He has five wins at the track.
Kasey Kahne (second) posted his fourth top-10 start of 2013 and his 10th in 19 races at Bristol Motor Speedway. His qualifying speed of 128.995 mph was also above the previous track qualifying record set by Ryan Newman in 2003.
Denny Hamlin (third) posted his fourth top-10 start at Bristol Motor Speedway. It is his third in four races this season.
(NASCAR Statistics)(3-15-2013)

Coverage of Qualifying for the Food City 500 Sprint Cup Series race at Bristol Motor Speedway is scheduled for Friday, March 15, 2013 at 3:40pm/et.
TV: SPEED- 3:30pm/et
Radio: PRN at goprn.com.
Qualifying Re-Air: on SPEED at 10:30pm/et & 12:30am/et

Pole Progression: (who had the pole first, who got it next and who ended up with it)
#19-Bliss, 1st out to qualify, 125.708mph, starting 36th
#39-Newman, 4th out, 126.237, starts 31st
#30-Stremme, 5th out, 126.595, starts 26th
#15-Bowyer, 6th out, 157.300, starts 23rd
#99-Edwards, 7th out, 127.360, starts 1st
#18-Busch, 9th out, 129.535, starts 1st - on pole

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 randon 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.

If 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.

If first practice is run, but qualifying is unable to take place, the starting lineup will be based on speeds from the car's fastest lap from the first practice, with top-36 in speeds placed in that order. The next six cars use provisionals with the highest on owners points (previous season first three races, starting race 4, current season owners points), not already in the race via speed getting a spot. Then the those six cars are lined up by fastest speed in practice. The 43rd spot is for a past champion to use, if needed. If not, the next team eligible for a provisional gets the spot.

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