FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) – Ryan Newman almost lost control of his car just before taking the green flag for his qualifying run, and still won another pole.

Newman recovered for a lap of 192.582 mph Friday at Texas, earning his 30th pole in 123 career races – the highest percentage of pole starts (24 percent) in NASCAR Nextel Cup. It is his third this season, the fourth time he will start on the front row.

“It wasn’t as comfortable as practice,” Newman said. “The track heated up quite a bit and made it a hand full.”

“I actually about lost control coming to the green flag. … We slowed up some, but we didn’t slow up as much as everybody else.”

Newman earned the pole for Sunday’s Samsung/RadioShack 500 on his first qualifying lap in his Dodge. Teammates Jeremy Mayfield (192.431) and Kasey Kahne (191.734), the runner-up in Texas last spring, qualified 2-3 in Dodges.

Ricky Rudd was fourth for his first top 10 start.

Greg Biffle, Rusty Wallace, Jeff Gordon and 2004 race winner Elliott Sadler rounded out the top eight spots.

One of Newman’s 11 career wins came at Texas two years ago.

But he finished 39th and 40th his only other two races at the 11/2-mile, high-banked track.

AP-ES-04-15-05 2012EDT