TALLADEGA, Ala. – This is why they call him "Front Row Joe."

Veteran Joe Nemechek, racing at the 2.66-mile Talladega Superspeedway for the 10th time, on Thursday took the pole for Saturday's Subway 300 Busch Series race.

It was the fourth pole for a Busch event for Nemechek, who drove his Pontiac to a lap of 189.729 mph (50.903 seconds). He set that mark after turning only four laps in practice in the same car he won the pole for the Daytona Busch race earlier this season.

Nemechek has taken the pole four times in his last six races at Talladega.

"It was a good lap and a lot of work went into this car," Nemechek said. "It's the car we ended up wrecking on the last lap in Daytona after running second to my teammate there."

That would be Randy LaJoie, who will start outside Nemechek on the front row, just as LaJoie did in Daytona. They both knew they had good cars after their qualifying runs.

"We did a motor test here a few months ago," Nemechek said. "We didn't know how fast we were going to be, but we learned a little about the motor. We just made a run to see if we were going to get in the race."

Jimmy Spencer, like Nemechek a Winston Cup driver, qualified third in another Pontiac. He had the fastest time in practice.

Series points leader Kevin Harvick will start fourth in his Chevrolet, followed by Jeff Purvis in a Pontiac and Mike Skinner in a Chevrolet.