HAMPTON, GA. ? Even before Ryan Newman drove onto the Atlanta Motor Speedway track Friday night, the crowd began to buzz in anticipation.

Newman didn’t disappoint, turning the fastest qualifying lap of the year in his No. 12 Dodge on a cool night, earning his ninth pole of the season in time trials for Sunday’s Bass Pro Shops MBNA 500.

No other driver has more than four poles in the 33 events so far in 2003.

The second-year Winston Cup driver turned a lap of 194.295 mph on his first of two allowable qualifying laps around the 1.54-mile quad-oval. Crew chief Matt Borland immediately told him to “shut it down.”

The blazing lap in the first AMS qualifying session under the lights gave Newman the 16th pole of his budding career.

“That’s pretty quick,” Newman said. “It wasn’t a perfect lap — we were a little off on our balance. I thought we could have been a tick quicker, but it was pretty good.”

The pole-winning lap was the third-fastest in Atlanta history, behind only Geoffrey Bodine’s 197.478 on brand new pavement in the fall of 1997 and Bobby Labonte’s 194.957 in the spring of 1999.

It almost wasn’t fast enough.

Labonte, whose lap of 193.514 in March at Texas Motor Speedway was the best of 2003 until Newman’s burst Friday, came onto the track about 15 minutes after Newman. He made it a lot closer than anyone expected with a 194.016 in his No. 18 Chevrolet.

The time difference between the two fast cars was 0.041-seconds.

Labonte, who leads all active drivers with six victories here and was the pole winner for this race last fall, wasn’t upset at barely missing his fifth pole of the season.

“A late draw was good because as it got cooler the grip got better,” Labonte said. “That was an awesome lap for us. That was as fast as we could go.”

The last driver to win as many as nine poles in a single season was Newman’s Penske Racing South teammate Rusty Wallace, who did it in 2000. The modern-era record, dating to 1972, is 14 by Cale Yarborough in 1980.

Dale Earnhardt Jr., the last of 49 drivers making a qualifying effort Friday night, couldn’t quite match the top two, putting up a lap of 193.319.

“The car was good enough to get the pole; the driver needs a little more experience,” said Earnhardt, who bottomed out briefly on his qualifying lap.

Brian Vickers, earning his second Winston Cup start, celebrated his 20th birthday with a lap that put him fourth in the 43-car lineup for Sunday’s 500-mile race.

Vickers, in his first drive in the No. 25 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet that he will drive in the final four races of this season and will race for Rookie of the Year in 2004, turned a lap of 193.272.

Local favorite Bill Elliott, from Dawsonville, Ga., was a solid fifth at 192.969, followed by Elliott Sadler at 192.140, Todd Bodine at 191.814 and Joe Nemechek, moving from the No. 25 to the No. 01 MB2 Motorsports Pontiac, at 191.807.

Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart, winners of the last two races and, like Newman, riding strings of five straight top-five finishes, qualified 19th and 24th.

Kevin Harvick, second in the season standings, will start 10th Sunday, while series leader Matt Kenseth, going into the race with a 240-point lead, had to use a provisional and will start a disappointing 37th.

Kenseth can wrap up his first championship, no matter what Harvick or third-place Earnhardt do, by finishing 12th or better in the last four races.