LOUDON, N.H. - Clint Bowyer nipped Martin Truex Jr. for the pole Friday in qualifying for the opening race of NASCAR’s Chase for the Nextel Cup championship.

Bowyer, the 45th of 49 drivers to make a qualifying attempt on the 1.058-mile oval at New Hampshire International Speedway, turned a fast lap of 130.412 mph to knock Truex (130.255) off the top spot for Sunday’s Sylvania 300.

Most important for Bowyer, it’s his first start better than 24th in five races at NHIS and gets the only one of the 12 drivers in the Chase without a race win off to a great start in the stock car playoff.

“It’s just exciting,” said Bowyer, who along with Truex are the only first-time drivers in the 10-race Chase. “It’s an exciting time for not only me, but everybody at (Richard Childress Racing) and on my team.

“It’s a lot of lot of fun to be in this Chase. You know, the pressure’s off of us. We’re 12th (in the points). We only have one way to go and that’s forward. Sitting on the pole right here in the first race of the Chase is a big step in the right direction and it says a lot about our race team.”

It was the second pole of Bowyer’s Cup career. His first came in May at Darlington.

Truex, who has yet to win a Cup pole, was disappointed but still enthusiastic about having a strong starting spot in the 43-car field.

“It was a great lap for us,” the Dale Earnhardt Inc. driver said. “We’re real happy with the speed we ran, we just wish we could have been on the pole because we’re really trying to get in that Bud Shootout (for pole winners) for next year. But we’ve got nine more tries and we’ll keep working on it.”

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Kurt Busch, who won the inaugural Chase opener here in 2004 on the way to that year’s championship, was third on Friday at 130.011, followed by Chase points leader and reigning Cup champion Jimmie Johnson at 129.798.

Ryan Newman, the only non-Chase driver in the top six, was next at 129.723.

Two-time series champion Tony Stewart, third in the current standings, was sixth at 129.679, the same speed as non-Chase driver Elliott Sadler.

Rounding out the top 10 were Chase competitor Kevin Harvick at 129.362, Greg Biffle at 129.226 and Dave Blaney at 129.164.

The rest of the Chase drivers were scattered behind them.

Carl Edwards, who crashed in practice and was in a backup car for qualifying, was 12th, just ahead of Kyle Busch. Denny Hamlin was 14th, four-time champion Jeff Gordon 18th, Jeff Burton 23rd and 2003 champion Matt Kenseth 30th.

Three-time IndyCar champion Sam Hornish Jr., hoping to make his Cup debut, failed to qualify on speed and former open-wheel star John Andretti made it on time, but had his lap disallowed when his car failed inspection for being too low.

Andretti’s disqualification gave a starting spot to Boris Said, driving a fourth Gillette Evernham Motorsports entry.