"If I would have known I was gonna run this good, I would have gotten married about five years ago. That'll teach me. I waited way too long. I might have been working on my second or third championship by now."

That was Greg Biffle's tongue-in cheek comment after winning the pole at Atlanta Motor Speedway Friday. Biffle got married 10 days ago to long-time girlfriend Nicole Lunders.

It was Biffle's first pole of 2007 and, surprisingly, just the 4th of his Cup career. The Biff laid down a solid qualifying lap at 192.45 miles per hour.

Qualifying was preceded Friday by the first of three practice sessions, with the other two held on Saturday. Kasey Kahne led both the first and third practices, with lap speeds of 191.20 and 188.45 respectively. Kahne is currently showing at 25:1 in live betting nascar odds. While he does have a previous win at Atlanta, it occurred in 2006, the year that he won six Cup races. Unfortunately, Kahne is winless this year and currently ranks 19th in points, though he did qualify 4th and will likely have a good run on Sunday.

The Pep Boys Auto 500 is the 33rd race of the 36-race Nextel Cup season, and the 7th of 10 races in NASCAR's Chase for the Championship. The season is still shaping up to be a two-man race between teammates Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson, unless something completely unexpected happens to both drivers between now and Homestead-Miami.

While Kahne paced Friday's practice as well as Happy Hour, DEI teammates Martin Truex Jr. and Dale Earnhardt Jr. topped Saturday morning's session with speeds of 190.31 and 188.72 respectively. But Earnhardt Jr. (15:1) had the better run in qualifying; he'll line up 5th on Sunday, while Truex (18:1) starts 20th. Both drivers like Atlanta and were optimistic about their chances, though it's pretty obvious at this point that Earnhardt Jr. is running R&D engines for the remainder of the season.

Other than Kahne and Earnhardt Jr., drivers who ran in the top 10 in both qualifying and Happy Hour include Kurt Busch (8:1), Jimmie Johnson (3:1), and David Stremme (300:1).

Busch, who starts on the outside pole, has not been particularly successful at this track in the past, with just 1 top 10 in 13 starts and an average finish of 22.3.His Penske teammate Ryan Newman (15:1), who's had a hot hand the past few weeks and starts 9th, has 4 top 10s in 11 starts with an average finish of 17.2

Behind the front row of Biffle and Busch is an unexpectedly strong Dale Jarrett, who put his Toyota 3rd on the starting grid.

The only Chase contenders besides Kurt Busch to qualify in the top 10 are Jimmie Johnson, who starts 6th, and Jeff Gordon (6:1) who starts 8th. Johnson has two previous wins at Atlanta including this year's spring race. Gordon has won 4 races here and is receiving special honors this weekend in commemoration of his first-ever Nextel Cup start, which took place 15 years ago at Atlanta. Gordon will serve as Grand Marshal of the race and will give the "start your engines" command from the cockpit of his race car.

Tony Stewart (8:1) ran 24th in Happy Hour and qualified 30th. Stewart has an excellent record at Atlanta with 2 wins and 11 top 10s in 17 starts and an average finish of 11.5. As I've said before, something is amiss with the 20 team right now, and though Stewart has had four top 10s in six Chase races, he's lost ground in the standings to Gordon and Johnson. Atlanta might be his best opportunity to turn things around.

Stewart's Joe Gibb Racing teammate Denny Hamlin (15:1) ran 6th in second practice and 8th in Happy Hour, but starts 18th on Sunday. Hamlin has only made 4 starts at Atlanta in his Cup career with one top 10, finishing 8th in this race a year ago.

None of the Richard Childress Racing drivers, all Chase contenders, qualified well, with Bowyer (25:1) 26th, Jeff Burton (35:1) 28th, and Kevin Harvick (30:1) 34th.

Pole sitter Greg Biffle, currently 25:1, has never won at Atlanta, but has two top 5s in 9 starts and finished 5th here a year ago.