LOUDON, N.H. – Kyle Busch was the last driver to go in Friday’s Sprint Cup qualifying, and he made the most of the opportunity.
Busch posted a lap of 133.417 mph to capture his first pole position of the season for Sunday’s race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Kasey Kahne, who drove 133.403 mph on the fastest of his two laps, will start alongside Busch.
Additional Photos
“It was a good lap for us, but I thought I was probably going to be third or fourth,” said Busch, who won the 2006 NASCAR race at Loudon and will be starting from the front row for the third time this year.
Busch nearly brushed the wall near the end of his qualifying run when “the car slipped right at the last second,” he said. “There’s no mark on the car, so all is good there.” He went on to his ninth career pole.
Denny Hamlin was third with a lap of 133.399 mph. He had back spasms last week that cause him to skip the Nationwide Series race at Daytona International Speedway. But he felt better Friday.
“Back spasms come and go. Obviously, last week was a bad week for it,” Hamlin said. “(I) don’t feel any lingering symptoms from it.”
Rounding out the top 10 were Martin Truex Jr., Clint Bowyer, Ryan Newman, Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Tony Stewart.
The top 10 qualifying times were very close, from Busch’s lap of 28.548 seconds to Stewart’s of 28.651. Only .047 seconds separated the top eight.
“As far as the times, everyone is really close, so you have to go for all you can get,” Kahne said. “I was aggressive on the first lap.”
Matt Kenseth, who leads the series in points, was 27th with a time of 29.023.
NOTE: Carl Edwards wants drivers to pay for a drug testing system to help avoid mistakes that he said could occur under the system operated by NASCAR that led to the suspension of AJ Allmendinger.
Last year’s Sprint Cup runner-up said that people and tests are imperfect and that his proposal would add another layer of testing to assure that drivers are not punished unfairly.
Allmendinger was suspended about 90 minutes before last Saturday night’s race at Daytona International Speedway after his “A” sample taken the previous weekend at Kentucky Speedway came back positive.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
Success. Please wait for the page to reload. If the page does not reload within 5 seconds, please refresh the page.
Enter your email and password to access comments.
Hi, to comment on stories you must . This profile is in addition to your subscription and website login.
Already have a commenting profile? .
Invalid username/password.
Please check your email to confirm and complete your registration.
Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.
Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.