Earnhardt Jr. wins first pole for Hendrick

Dale Earnhardt Jr. signs the Coors Light Pole board in Texas Motor Speedway's Victory Lane after winning his eighth career pole and second at the track.

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Dale Earnhardt, Jr. scored his eighth career NASCAR Sprint Cup Series pole on Friday when he turned the fastest lap in qualifying for the Samsung 500 at Texas Motor Speedway.

Earnhardt Jr. turned a lap of 190.907 mph in his Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet to earn his first pole of the 2008 season and first for Hendrick Motorsports.

"I was surprised at how fast it was," Earnhardt said. "We had a great advantage going later than when Carl did."

Carl Edwards will start outside the front row after his 189.487 mph lap around the 1.5-mile speedway.

"It’s a huge amount of confidence," he said. "Right now, I feel like our cars are second to none, so when we come to these places where the car is really huge, the car is an integral part of it more than other places. I’m really, really happy to come to these tracks right now."

Kyle Busch, Ryan Newman and Jimmie Johnson rounded out the top five.

David Reutimann, David Ragan, Matt Kenseth, Mike Skinner and Kasey Kahne completed the first ten qualifiers.