Vickers leaves it late for Texas pole.

Brian Vickers took pole position for the Dickies 500 at the Texas Motor Speedway despite being the 50h and final car to make a qualifying attempt.

The Hendrick Motorsports driver broke the Texas track record with his 27.518secs flying lap to become the first driver to lap the 1.5-mile high-banked oval at an average speed of more than 195mph.

Vickers' lap capped an exciting conclusion to a session that saw no less than eight drivers top the timesheets during the course of the session but when Elliott Sadler, the 49th driver to qualify, also broke the track record, the driver of the #19 Evernham Motorsports Dodge looked a safe bet for his first Bud Pole since leaving Robert Yates Racing.

However Vickers saved the best for last, giving his Hendrick team something to cheer about for the first time since his controversial win at Talladega.

Sadler will start second with the third driver to break the track record, Kurt Busch, in third. Kasey Kahne and Jimmie Johnson round out the top five with Denny Hamlin, David Gilliland, Tony Stewart, Robby Gordon and Dale Earnhardt Jr rounding out the top ten.

Of the other Chase contenders Kyle Busch will start eleventh, Kevin Harvick 21st, Jeff Gordon 23rd, Mark Martin 28th, Jeff Burton 29th and points leader Matt Kenseth 36th.

AJ Allmendinger was the slowest of the 50 entrants and failed to qualify as did Derrike Cope, David Ragan, Mike Skinner, Kevin Lepage, Chad Chaffin and Bill Elliott, who lost out on the Past Champions Provisional to Terry Labonte, who will make his final career start from 43rd and last position.