Talladega, Ala. ? A pair of once-mighty teams returned to the top of the Talladega Superspeedway leaderboard with very different things to prove.

Travis Kvapil won the pole Saturday to show Yates Racing is on an upswing after several lean years, and Dale Earnhardt Inc. had a strong qualifying day to counter rumblings that the team is in trouble.

Kvapil turned a lap at 187.364 mph in his Yates Racing Ford to edge Casey Mears’ lap of 187.295 in a Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet.

It was the first pole of Kvapil’s career and came in his 100th start. And it was the eighth Talladega pole for a car owned by Yates, which was also the last Ford team to win at this track when Dale Jarrett grabbed a 2005 victory.

“This is a place that’s really special to the Yates family, and my crew chief, Todd Parrott, loves coming here,” Kvapil said. “It’s awful special. There are a lot of (No.) 28 fans in the Talladega area, so it’s pretty cool that we can come out here and get my first pole and give those 28 fans something to cheer about.”

DEI got a huge boost when all four of its cars qualified in the top 10 for today’s race. Aric Almirola qualified third, Regan Smith was fourth, Paul Menard was fifth, and Martin Truex Jr. was 10th.