Kyle Busch Powers To Record Setting Pole At Charlotte

Kyle Busch qualified for the pole for Saturday night’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Charlotte
Motor Speedway. Photo by Jonathan Ferrey/NASCAR via Getty Images

CONCORD, NC – Kyle Busch captured the pole for Saturday’s Bank of America 500 on a record-breaking night of qualifying at Charlotte Motor Speedway on Thursday that saw the fastest lap on a mile-and-a-half track in NASCAR history.

Busch stood atop the leaderboard at the end of the third round of knockout qualifying with a lap of 197.390 mph to notch his third pole of the season, coming just one week after he posted his first top-five finish in the Chase for the Sprint Cup and his best finish since coming home second in the Brickyard 400 in August.

Jeff Gordon was second with a lap of 197.217mph, followed by Denny Hamlin (197.087), Tony Stewart (196.542) and Ryan Newman (196.442).

With the Chase entering the halfway point at Charlotte this weekend, Busch and his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin find themselves both in the top five in points, with the third JGR entry of Matt Kenseth sitting seventh in the standings.

“We’re edging our way towards the top,” said Busch of JGR’s surge. “It certainly feels good that we’re heading in the right direction at the right time of the year.

“We certainly have been fighting really hard at Joe Gibbs Racing to get ourselves up to running with the level of competition that we’ve been seeing from our competitors. Anything can happen, and there was a few bad races for a few guys last race in Kansas and for us now it’s just about trying to come out of here with a solid finish at Charlotte and put ourselves in the best position possible.”

If the speeds in earlier practice sessions didn’t set the tone for Thursday’s qualifying sessions, the first round of knockout qualifying certainly did as Kasey Kahne set the early pace by shattering the track record with a lap of 197.976 mph to lead the opening round, topping the previous mark of 195.624 mph set by Hamlin in May of 2013. In all, 22 of the 24 drivers to advance were under the previous track record.

With the gauntlet laid down, the top 24 moved onto the second round where Kurt Busch rocketed to the top of the leaderboard with a jaw-dropping lap of 198.771 mph, marking the fastest qualifying lap ever at a mile-and-a-half track – besting the previous mark of 198.282 mph posted this past April by Kevin Harvick at Texas Motor Speedway.

For the third and final round, the top 12 drivers to advance began qualifying with a clean slate, but lap speeds were far below what was seen in the second round, with Kyle Busch setting the bar early with a lap more than a mile an hour slower than record-breaking lap set by Kurt Busch, who ultimately ended the night qualifying 11th.

Harvick, who finished second in each of the first two rounds, qualified seventh. Other Chase contenders in the third round included Dale Earnhardt, Jr. (ninth) and Carl Edwards (tenth).

Among the drivers who failed to advance to the third round was Kahne – who lost the pole and the track record – as well as Chase contenders Jimmie Johnson and Brad Keselowski, all of whom are at the bottom of the Chase standings after disastrous finishes last weekend at Kansas Speedway.

“We’ve been off a little bit in qualifying trim since we’ve been here, but I thought our race trim was really good in practice and that’s the most important thing so we’ll keep working,” said Keselowski, who will start 17th on Saturday. “There have been races where we started up front and not finished up front and there’s races where we start towards the back and raced to the front. It ebbs and flows. Everything that goes down will come back up and you just have to ride it while you can.”

Johnson, who has won this race three times including two in a row in 2004 and 2005, will roll off 21st – his first start outside the top ten at Charlotte since 2007.

“Just didn’t have the speed there on that final run,” said Johnson. “I thought we had some hope after the first round and our second outing we ran a very good lap. But just didn’t have any more there on that lap through turns 3 and 4.

“It’s disappointing. There’s no way around it.”

Trevor Bayne was the lone non-qualifier attempting his first start of the year driving the No. 6 Ford for Roush-Fenway Racing.

NASCAR Sprint Cup Series
Charlotte Motor Speedway – Concord, NC
Bank of America 500 Qualifying – Oct. 9, 2014

1. Kyle Busch – 197.39 mph
2. Jeff Gordon – 197.217
3. Denny Hamlin – 197.087
4. Tony Stewart – 196.542
5. Ryan Newman – 196.442
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7. Kevin Harvick – 195.837
8. Brian Vickers – 195.744
9. Dale Earnhardt, Jr. – 194.953
10. Carl Edwards – 194.861
11. Kurt Busch – 194.328
12. Greg Biffle – 191.598
13. Joey Logano – 196.485
14. Danica Patrick – 196.464
15. Aric Almirola – 196.442
16. Justin Allgaier – 196.414
17. Brad Keselowski – 196.278
18. Jamie McMurray – 196.278
19. Kasey Kahne – 196.271
20. Austin Dillon – 196.207
21. Jimmie Johnson – 196.171
22. Matt Kenseth – 196.114
23. Martin Truex, Jr. – 195.73
24. Kyle Larson – 195.673
25. Clint Bowyer – 195.291
26. A.J. Allmendinger – 195.277
27. Marcos Ambrose – 194.665
28. Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. – 194.273
29. Casey Mears – 194.112
30. Reed Sorenson – 193.736
31. Michael McDowell – 193.465
32. Landon Cassill – 193.368
33. Alex Bowman – 193.223
34. David Ragan – 193.175
35. Michael Annett – 193.078
36. Cole Whitt – 192.974
37. David Gilliland – Owner Points
38. Josh Wise – Owner Points
39. Brett Moffitt – Owner Points
40. Timmy Hill – Owner Points
41. J.J. Yeley – Owner Points
42. Corey LaJoie – Owner Points
43. Blake Koch – Owner Points