Joliet, Ill. ? Tony Stewart pulled off a surprise and earned his first pole this season in qualifying Friday at Chicagoland Speedway.

The Winston Cup champion, struggling through a difficult season and not known as a strong qualifier, turned a track-record lap of 184.786 mph on the 11/2-mile oval to pick up the seventh pole of his career and first since last August in Indianapolis.

The start of the qualifying session was delayed nearly 2 hours by rain, but that didn’t appear to affect the track. The top five qualifiers for the Topicana 400 surpassed the previous record of 183.713, set in 2001 by Todd Bodine.

Asked what kind of qualifier he considers himself, Stewart grimaced in mock pain and said: “A terrible one, to be honest. If I could get Ryan Newman to wear my uniform and go out there and qualify for me, I’d do it. He’s the king of qualifying. I feel like I’m a better racer than I am a qualifier.”

Jeff Gordon was second at 184.445, giving Chevrolet a sweep of the front row for Sunday’s race.

Bill Elliott was third in a Dodge at 184.401, and rookie Casey Mears fourth at 184.263 in another Dodge.

Earlier in the day, Mears won the pole for today’s Busch series race.

Jeremy Mayfield, also driving a Dodge, was the fifth driver to break the previous track record with a lap of 183.892.

Rookie Greg Biffle, coming off his first Cup win last Saturday night in Daytona, was seventh at 183.499 in the fastest Ford.

Kevin Harvick, who won both previous Cup races at Chicagoland, qualified 11th at 183.163.

Series points leader Matt Kenseth was 24th at 181.470, and series runner-up Dale Earnhardt Jr. will start 16th after qualifying at 182.593.

Newman had an off-day on Friday, qualifying 14th at 182.815.