DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — One day after a misstep that could prove costly to its top-performing team, Dale Earnhardt Inc. got a boost in Friday's qualifying for the Coke Zero 400 at Daytona International Speedway.

DEI Chevrolets swept the front-row starting spots for Saturday night's race with Paul Menard winning his first career Sprint Cup pole in his 57th career start. Menard's best previous starting spot at this 2.5-mile track was 21st and his best Cup start overall had been 13th at Dover earlier this year.

"I had no idea how the car would run by itself," said Menard, who ran a lap of 185.916 mph to edge teammate Mark Martin's average speed of 185.870 mph. "Obviously, it was pretty good."

Regan Smith, in a third DEI car, qualified eighth fastest at 184.976 mph.

But even after putting three cars in the top eight, any companywide celebration had to be tempered by concerns over what Thursday's developments might mean for Martin Truex Jr. and DEI's No. 1 team.

That team's primary car, a new one built for this race for Truex, failed to pass inspection before Thursday's practice and was impounded by NASCAR. The car did not meet templates in the roof area, NASCAR said, and will be taken to the research and development center in Concord for more examination.

Truex is 14th in the Sprint Cup standings, 71 points outside the race for one of the 12 spots available in the championship Chase. But when NASCAR seized two cars before the Coca-Cola 600 in May for rules issues, it not only levied fines and a suspension, it also docked 150 points from each team. That would severely hamper chances for Truex — who will start 35th Saturday night — to climb into the Chase.

"We hope this is just the beginning of many more days like this," said Max Siegel, DEI's president of global operations. "But it doesn't minimize the impact the situation with the No. 1 could have on Martin and his team."

Earlier in the day Martin had confirmed that he'll leave DEI at the end of this season to drive the No. 5 Chevrolets at Hendrick Motorsports full-time next year, shadowing the career move that Dale Earnhardt Jr. made after last year.

Earnhardt won this race in 2001 and has 10 top-10 finishes in 17 career Daytona starts. "It will be a fun race," he said. "It always is here."

Points leader Kyle Busch, who finished second by a whisker here last July, will start ninth.