Two practice sessions were held before the race; the first on April 12, 2012 which lasted 120 minutes. The second and final practice session was held on the following day and lasted 90 minutes.[9]Mark Martin was quickest with a time of 28.507 seconds in the first session, less than four-hundredths of a second faster than Biffle.[10] Harvick was just off Biffle's pace, followed by A. J. Allmendinger, Regan Smith, and Marcos Ambrose. Kenseth was seventh, still within two-tenths of a second of Martin's time.[10] In the second and final practice session, Trevor Bayne was quickest with a time of 29.246 seconds.[11] Biffle followed in the second position, ahead of Kenseth, Bowyer, and Allmendinger.[11] Harvick was sixth after posting a time of 29.355 seconds, while Hamlin and Kurt Busch followed in seventh and eighth.[11] Truex Jr. and Joey Logano rounded out the first ten positions.[11]
Forty-six cars were entered for qualifying, but only forty-three raced because of NASCAR's qualifying procedure.[12] Truex Jr. clinched his seventh pole position during his career, with a time of 28.366 seconds.[13][14] He was joined on the front row of the grid by Kenseth.[13] Biffle qualified third, Martin took fourth, and Kasey Kahne started fifth.[13] Newman, Ambrose, Keselowski, Jamie McMurray, and Johnson rounded out the first ten positions.[13] The drivers who failed to qualify for the race were David Stremme, Joe Nemechek and Stacy Compton.[13] Once the qualifying session concluded, Truex Jr. said, "That's our main goal. This team's good enough. We can get to Victory Lane. We're going to do it soon. I feel good about this team. I'm just having so much fun coming to the race track and driving these cars. We're going to make them proud here pretty quick."[15]
Notes
The last 234 laps went green, setting a NASCAR record for the longest consecutive green flag run on an intermediate track.
