Hornish Jr. grabs pole for Nationwide race at Watkins Glen

Aug 11, 2012 - 3:55 PM Watkins Glen, NY (Sports Network) - Sam Hornish Jr. claimed his first pole in the Nationwide Series after posting the fastest lap in Saturday's qualifying for the Zippo 200 at Watkins Glen International.

Hornish, who drives the No. 12 Dodge for Penske Racing, turned a lap around the 2.45-mile, 11-turn road course in 1 minute, 12.027 seconds for his maiden pole in 54 Nationwide starts.

Carl Edwards, who is competing in his first Nationwide race this season, secured the outside pole with a lap time of 1:12.094.

Paul Menard qualified third, followed by Brad Keselowski and Kyle Busch.

Joey Logano, Elliott Sadler, the current points leader, Justin Allgaier, Brian Scott and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. completed the top-10.

Sadler, the winner of last weekend's race at Iowa, holds an 18-point advantage over Austin Dillon, who qualified 30th. Stenhouse is 21 points behind Sadler, while Hornish trails by 34 markers.

John Young, Ryan Ellis, Louis-Philippe Dumoulin and Derek White failed to qualify for the 82-lap race at Watkins Glen, which is scheduled to start at 2:15 p.m. (ET).