Long Pond, Pa. ? There were no crashes or bad luck for Kasey Kahne at Pocono Raceway. Kahne put aside the disappointment of a wreck at Dover that cost him his first career victory and rebounded Friday to set a track record and claim the pole for the Pocono 500.

Kahne, driving a Dodge for Evernham Motorsports, turned a lap of 172.553 mph for his fourth pole of the season, adding to top qualifying efforts at Las Vegas, Darlington and California. He becomes the first rookie to win the pole at Pocono. Ward Burton in 1994 and Jimmie Johnson in 2002 started second in their rookie seasons.

“The car was perfect. I couldn’t believe it,” Kahne said. “We were a little bit off in practice, but the car was better, I drove a little better. It’s a difficult track. It takes some time learn.”

Kahne proved to be a quick learner. He took test laps at the track last week under the watchful eye of Bill Elliott, whom he replaced on owner Ray Evernham’s team after last year.

Kahne got wide on Turn 1 and crashed. Nothing major, but it taught him a few lessons about navigating the 2 1/2-mile triangular track.

His qualifying time broke Tony Stewart’s record of 172.391 set in 2000, and he started to make up for a missed opportunity at Dover.

Kahne narrowly missed a 19-car pileup late in Sunday’s race and was well on his way to the first victory of his Nextel Cup career at Dover International Speedway. Then, with oil all over the racetrack, he wrecked with only 18 laps remaining. He went from nearly winning his first race to nothing.

“I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about it,” Kahne said. “I pretty much get over it during the day, but when I go to sleep it comes back in my mind. It wasn’t fun. We did everything right that day. It was just circumstances. The team was let down because we didn’t win, but we were happy because we were the best team there.”

Setzer snares truck victory

Fort Worth, Texas — Dennis Setzer overtook the ill-handling truck of Ted Musgrave with five laps left Friday night and went on to a record-setting NASCAR trucks win in Texas. Setzer won by 11.817 seconds, the largest margin of victory at the track, in a record speed of 148.946 mph. The race had just three cautions for 12 laps.

Setzer led just 13 laps in his 12th career win, five years to the date after his only other Texas win.

When Setzer made his final pit stop with 32 laps left, his crew opted to change all four tires on his Chevrolet. That came just three laps after Musgrave changed only right-side tires. Musgrave built a lead of more than seven seconds, but as the laps ticked down, so did his advantage. He said something came loose on the right front of his Dodge.

Truex takes Busch pole

Gladeville, Tenn. — Martin Truex Jr. had no need to match the track record he set on the Nashville Superspeedway in April. He was fast enough Friday with his Chevrolet, taking the pole for today’s Federated Auto Parts 300 with a lap of 163.596 mph on the 1.33-mile concrete oval. It was Truex’s second straight Busch Series pole on this track, and fourth of the season.

He didn’t start on the pole in April because a crash in the final practice forced him to a backup car and the back of the field.

“That’s behind us,” Truex said. “That was a couple of months ago. We’ve done good things since then, won races and poles.”