Martin Truex Jr. won his first pole at Atlanta Motor Speedway in Hampton, Ga., just in time for the track's first scheduled race entirely under the lights.

Truex won the pole for the Pep Boys Auto 500 tonight with his lap of 184.149 mph yesterday. It is Truex's second pole of the season after qualifying first and finishing 11th at the Daytona 500.

Truex is leaving Earnhardt Ganassi Racing after the season to join Michael Waltrip Racing and said he wants to give his current team a win.

"I think the urgency is just that the year is coming to an end," Truex said. "It's been a tough year. We've had some great runs. We've worked really hard and really don't have a lot to show for it.

"I sure would like to get to victory lane before the season is out."

Kasey Kahne, 11th in the Sprint Cup standings, qualified second at 183.497 mph and has much at stake tonight.

"It's a big race for us," Kahne said. "We need to figure out how we can gain points and race as fast as we can. ... No mistakes, and I think we should have a great shot at making the Chase. That's the goal. That's all we want to do right not, to figure out how to make the chase."

Jimmie Johnson, was third, followed by Jeff Gordon, Kyle Busch and Kurt Busch.

Tony Stewart expects to one day be trading paint with Danica Patrick.

While racing's most prominent female driver ponders her options for next year, Stewart said he has no doubts that Patrick will eventually make the jump to stock cars.

He should know: They have talked frequently about what it would take for Patrick to go from open-wheel racing to the heavier cars in NASCAR.

"I just know that she's excited about this and making this change," said Stewart, who leads the Sprint Cup standings heading into the race tonight at AMS. "I can pretty much guarantee at some point she's going to be over here."

Stewart made the same jump himself more than a decade ago, leaving the Indy Racing League for a more lucrative deal in NASCAR. He's become something on a mentor to Patrick, who visited his racing shop and had a chance to talk with him further at sponsor appearances.

"She's looked me straight in the eye and said, 'Hey, this is what I want to do. It looks like fun. It looks like a lot of work, but it looks like fun,'" Stewart said. "She doesn't have some misguided idea that it's going to be easy doing it. She wants to do it the right way. She has the intention of doing everything right."

He doesn't expect Patrick to follow the path taken by Dario Franchitti, an Indy car star who jumped to Sprint Cup in 2008 without any stock-car experience and didn't even make it through the season. He is back in the open-wheel series.

Stewart said he believes Patrick will work out some sort of deal that allows her to stay in Indy cars for at least another year or two while she gets the feel of the bulkier machines running part-time in a lower series, such as the second-tier Nationwide.

"You've got to learn," Stewart said. "You've got to get used to the heavier race car, less downforce, smaller tires. There's a lot of learning, a lot of race tracks you've got to get used to. It's sensory overload. That's why you've got to pay your dues before you get in this thing."

Patrick is only woman to win a major-series race and the highest-finishing female in Indianapolis 500 history.