Earnhardt, the Hendrick newcomer and the team's most consistent finisher with four consecutive top 10s, ran a fast lap of 190.907 mph Friday at Texas Motor Speedway to earn the pole for the Samsung 500. It is his first pole in 22 races, since Pocono in August.
"The car handled really good," Earnhardt said. "The car is as good and as comfortable ... It could be a good weekend for us."
The qualifying run came on the 10th anniversary of Earnhardt's first NASCAR victory, a Nationwide race at Texas. Earnhardt also got his first Sprint Cup victory at the 1 1/2-mile high-banked track in 2000.
Starting beside Earnhardt's No. 88 Chevrolet on the front row will be Carl Edwards, who ran a lap of 189.487 in his Ford. It is the first time Edwards, the only driver with two Cup victories this season, has started better than 10th at Texas, where he won the 2005 fall race.
Kyle Busch will start third, followed by Ryan Newman and Jimmie Johnson. Points leader Jeff Burton qualified 35th.
Qualifying was stopped for more than an hour after rookie driver Michael McDowell was involved in a horrific tumbling crash. McDowell walked away virtually unscathed, but track officials had to make temporary repairs to the SAFER (Steel and Foam Energy Reduction) barrier that McDowell hit.
McDowell was going into the first turn of his second lap when his No. 00 Toyota got loose, then slammed almost headfirst into the barrier. The car ricocheted off the wall and onto its roof, then rolled at least eight times before finally coming to rest at the bottom of the high-banked track.
"I feel great, nothing broke," McDowell said. "I didn't lose consciousness. I felt every roll down the hill."
A Hendrick driver has won the pole at four of the five tracks where qualifying hasn't been rained out. Two-time defending Cup champion Johnson was the polesitter at Daytona, and Jeff Gordon won the last two poles determined on the track.
But Hendrick Motorsports, which won 18 races last season, is still looking for its first victory this year. And Earnhardt is trying to break a 68-race winless streak that dates back to Richmond in May 2006.
