Marcos Ambrose placed himself in prime position to win his third straight race at Watkins Glen International, earning the pole with a track-record lap of 128.241 mph. Ambrose earned his first pole of the year, and the third of his career.
NASCAR Watkins Glen 2013: Lineup, starting grid for Cheez-It 355
Marcos Ambrose set a track qualifying record to earn his first pole of the year.
Mark Wilson
Ambrose will attempt to become the third driver to win three consecutive races at the road-course; Mark Martin and Jeff Gordon are the only drivers who have accomplished the feat.
More Watkins Glen: Marcos Ambrose's record lap Weekend weather forecast
Saturday marked the 12th time this season that a Gen-6 car has set a track qualifying record. The next nine drivers who qualified also broke the previous track record.
The full lineup and starting grid is listed below:
| Row | Position | Driver | Position2 | Driver3 |
| 1 | 1 | Marcos Ambrose | 2 | Clint Bowyer |
| 2 | 3 | Martin Truex Jr. | 4 | A.J. Allmendinger |
| 3 | 45 | Kyle Busch | 6 | Jamie McMurray |
| 4 | 7 | Paul Menard | 8 | Brad Keselowski |
| 5 | 9 | Joey Logano | 10 | Matt Kenseth |
| 6 | 11 | Juan Pablo Montoya | 12 | Michael McDowell |
| 7 | 13 | Kurt Busch | 14 | Ryan Newman |
| 8 | 15 | Brian Vickers | 16 | Carl Edwards |
| 9 | 17 | Greg Biffle | 18 | Jimmie Johnson |
| 10 | 19 | Kasey Kahne | 20 | Denny Hamlin |
| 11 | 21 | David Gilliland | 22 | Jeff Burton |
| 12 | 23 | Owen Kelly | 24 | Ron Fellows |
| 13 | 25 | Dale Earnhardt Jr. | 26 | Kevin Harvick |
| 14 | 27 | Boris Said | 28 | Jeff Gordon |
| 15 | 29 | Max Papis | 30 | Casey Mears |
| 16 | 31 | David Ragan | 32 | Aric Almirola |
| 17 | 33 | Ricky Stenhouse Jr. | 34 | Victor Gonzalez Jr. |
| 18 | 35 | Danica Patrick | 36 | David Reutimann |
| 19 | 37 | Alex Kennedy | 38 | Travis Kvapil |
| 20 | 39 | David Stremme | 40 | Dave Blaney |
| 21 | 41 | Landon Cassill | 42 | Tomy Drissi |
| 22 | 43 | Brian Keselowski |
Green flag is scheduled for 1:19 p.m. ET, with coverage on ESPN and the Motor Racing Network.
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