TALLADEGA, Ala.—A pair of once-mighty teams returned to the top of the Talladega Superspeedway leaderboard with very different things to prove.

Travis Kvapil won the pole Saturday to show Yates Racing is on an upswing after several lean years, and Dale Earnhardt Inc. had a strong qualifying day to counter rumblings that the team is in trouble.

Kvapil turned a lap at 187.364 mph in his Yates Racing Ford to edge Casey Mears’ lap of 187.295 in a Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet.

It was the first pole of Kvapil’s career and came in his 100th start. And it was the ...

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