Newman turned in a lap around the 1.5-mile oval at 188.475 m.p.h. in his No.39 Chevrolet. "The Rocketman" recorded his first pole since April 2008 at Phoenix and the 44th of his Sprint Cup Series career.

"It was a good lap," Newman said. "(Crew chief) Tony Gibson did a great job with the car. We started (practice) in race trim and then put it in qualifying trim and made it better. We're really looking forward to the rest of the weekend. It's nice after doing this to have a day off."

Newman moved ahead of Jeff Gordon for second most poles at Lowe's with eight. David Pearson hold the pole record here with 14.

Kyle Busch, who won the top starting position for last year's 600-mile race, grabbed the outside pole at 188.258 m.p.h.

"I didn't want to screw up the lap getting down into (turns) three and four," Busch said. "We couldn't get turned all the way down to the bottom to get to the white line. I shorted the corner a little bit and messed it up."

Gordon qualified third. The current points leader underwent a facet block procedure on his back earlier this week in hopes of alleviating pain that has gotten progressively worse.

"My back feels great," Gordon said. "Charlotte is just not a place that puts a lot of load on my back."

Gordon's Hendrick Motorsports teammates Mark Martin and Jimmie Johnson rounded out the top-five.

Kasey Kahne, the defending race champion, Mike Bliss, Brian Vickers, Juan Pablo Montoya and Bill Elliott were sixth through 10th, respectively.

Newman's team owner, Tony Stewart, winner of last Saturday's all-star race at Lowe's, qualified 28th, one spot behind Dale Earnhardt Jr. Stewart is currently 29 points behind Gordon.

J.J. Yeley, Mike Garvey, Todd Bodine and David Starr failed to qualify. Yeley took over driving duties of the No.41 Toyota last week after NASCAR suspended driver/owner Jeremy Mayfield for violating the sanctioning body's substance abuse policy.

Final practice for the Coca-Cola 600 is scheduled for Saturday at 2:45 p.m. (et), and the race is slated for Sunday around 5:45 p.m.