For the first time in four years, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. will lead the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series field to the green flag.

In dramatic fashion, Stenhouse won the pole for the GEICO 500 at Talladega Superspeedway with a lap of 191.547 mph. The fastest in the first round of qualifying, Stenhouse was then the last driver to take time in the final round and his time of 49.993 beat fan favorite Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s 50.194.

The pole is the first of the season for Stenhouse and the second of his career, with the other coming at Atlanta in the fall of 2013.

“It’ll be nice to lead the field to green here,” Stenhouse said. “The Fifth/Third (Bank) guys worked really, really hard on these cars. Jimmy Fennig did a great job on the speedway cars. This is cool. Doug Yates builds awesome horsepower. With his dad, Robert, not doing as well as we would like (battling liver cancer) it’d be cool to dedicate this one to him and all the hard work that the engine shop does.

“Man, it’s a cool way to start the weekend. Ready to get to Sunday.”

Earnhardt Jr. will start second after putting down a lap of 190.780 mph. Brad Keselowski, who is the defending winner of the event, will start third after a qualifying lap of 190.427 mph. Matt Kenseth (190.177 mph) and Trevor Bayne (190.155 mph) rounded out the top five.

“Yeah, I’m pretty happy,” Earnhardt said of his car. “Great lap by (Ricky) Stenhouse and the Roush guys, they did a really good job today. Thrilled with our car, good speed and it would have been nice to get a pole. Probably could have sat down and talked to Rick (Hendrick) about running the Clash (at Daytona) or something, but let’s see if we can’t try to get another one later on this year.”

The rest of the top 10 were Kevin Harvick (190.023 mph), Daniel Suarez (190.011 mph), Chase Elliott (189.921 mph), Paul Menard (189.643 mph), and Kyle Busch (189.582 mph).

UP NEXT: The GEICO 500 is Sunday at 2 p.m. ET, and airs on Fox.