Newman secures Phoenix pole.

Under cool evening skies in the Phoenix desert Penske Racing's Daytona 500 champion Ryan Newman took his first Coors Light Pole Award of 2008 ahead of Saturday's Subway Fresh 500.

Opening practice pacesetter Newman rounded the one-mile dog-leg Phoenix International Raceway in a best time of 26.975-seconds (133.457mph), a full half a second slower than his own track record but still quick enough to seal his 43rd career Cup Series pole.

In an incident free session Gillett-Evernham's Elliott Sadler made it an all Dodge front row on a track where the DaimlerChrysler owned brand has never won at with Texas winner Carl Edwards and veteran Mark Martin on row two.

Sadler's teammate Kasey Kahne will start Saturday's race from fifth position alongside Toyota's Kyle Busch with last November's Checker Auto Parts 500 winner Jimmie Johnson seventh, Jamie McMurray eighth, Martin Truex Jr ninth and Scott Riggs tenth for Haas CNC Racing.

Defending Subway 500 champion Jeff Gordon will begin his bid for a second career Phoenix victory from eleventh place with Tony Stewart twelfth and double Phoenix winner Dale Earnhardt Jr 13th.

With track conditions getting progressively cooler as the session wore on the ten drivers fighting for the final eight grid slots found themselves battling a little further down the order than usual with Bill Davis Racing's Dave Blaney winding up as the best placed 'go or go homer' with 19th fastest time.

Dario Franchitti overcame last weekend's failure to qualify in Texas with a steady 21st place run for Chip Ganassi Racing with Mike Skinner, David Reutimann, Patrick Carpentier, Joe Nemechek, Jeremy Mayfield's replacement Johnny Sauter and Bill Elliott also making the cut.

Just two drivers missed out in qualifying; John Andretti and Kyle Petty, whose #45 Petty Enterprises team has now failed to qualify for the last three races, twice with Petty and once with Chad McCumbee.