NASCAR Cup

Kenseth gets hot at Bristol, earns pole

Matt Kenseth went out late in the qualifying order but laid down the hottest lap of the day at Bristol Motor Speedway. Kenseth's lap of 127.300 mph was good enough to earn Kenseth his first pole of the season and just the second of his ...

Published: Aug 27, 2005, 1:25 PM

Copy link

Share on Viber

Add as a preferred source

Matt Kenseth went out late in the qualifying order but laid down the hottest lap of the day at Bristol Motor Speedway. Kenseth's lap of 127.300 mph was good enough to earn Kenseth his first pole of the season and just the second of his career.

"It's been awhile," Kenseth said. "It was a great lap. We've got a great car for the race tomorrow night. I didn't think it would qualify fast, but everybody did a great job. It was pretty fun to beat the 24 (Jeff Gordon) off the pole because he's always known for being so good here."

Kenseth is a self-proclaimed horrible qualifier but went out after the track temperatures had begun to cool. Some of the fastest times of the day were earned after the heat began to subside.

"We had a good draw obviously," Kenseth continued. "The weather is really good right now. We had a good car in practice and worked on race setup the whole time."

It is Kenseth's first pole since 2002 at Dover.

"The 16 (Greg Biffle) helped a lot," Kenseth said of his lap. "We used a lot of their stuff and the car was really good. I actually think I could have gone a little faster if I could do it again, but it was a great lap."

Jeff Gordon was second with a lap of 127.199 mph. Gordon is looking for a win this weekend to help buoy his attempts to stay eligible for the chase for the championship. Gordon has five career wins at Bristol.

"It was a good run for us," said Gordon. "It was a great lap, we are real happy with it. It felt like we left a little bit out there. All it took was somebody like Matt Kenseth to go out there and get after it."

Dave Blaney was third with a lap of 127.157 mph. It is Blaney's second top- three start of the year; he started second at this event in the spring.

"I thought going in that we could get a good lap," Blaney commented. "My car felt really good in practice. Going out so close to the end, I think it really helped. It cooled down quite a bit."

Greg Biffle and Ricky Rudd complete the top five fastest times.

"This track has got a ton of grip right now," Biffle said. "It is really, really fast. My car was just really solid. It was a really good lap. I didn't want to try for a second one because you're always taking a chance qualifying here because you are always right on the edge."

Point leader Tony Stewart wrecked during the first and only practice session for Cup teams at Bristol on Friday. Stewart was forced to pull out the back up car for qualifying, in an attempt to get as many practice laps in as possible; rather than spend a lengthy amount of time fixing Stewart's No. 20 Chevy.

Stewart wound up 17th.

"It was just a little bit tight," commented Stewart. "It was tight getting back to the gas. That's something that we can cure pretty easily, so we'll live with that one."

The No. 42 Dodge team of Jamie McMurray changed a transmission and will have to relinquish their 18th starting spot and begin the Sharpie 500 from the rear of the field.

We want your opinion!

What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?

Take our 5 minute survey.

- The Motorsport.com Team

Read and post comments

Share Or Save This Story

Copy link

Share on Viber

Previous article Garage Chatter: Bristol II

Next article Bristol II: Riggs signs with Evernham

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

View More & Comment

Latest news

WSJ Report: NASCAR is building 80+ race cars for Days of Thunder sequel

NASCAR Cup

NAS NASCAR Cup 1 h

WSJ Report: NASCAR is building 80+ race cars for Days of Thunder sequel

Brennan Poole to leave Alpha Prime Racing; team owners 'disappointed' to see him go

NASCAR O'Reilly

NOAP NASCAR O'Reilly

Charlotte II

11 h

Brennan Poole to leave Alpha Prime Racing; team owners 'disappointed' to see him go

Oscar Piastri on his Singapore puncture: “Ironically, it probably helped”

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1

Singapore GP

12 h

Oscar Piastri on his Singapore puncture: “Ironically, it probably helped”

Winners and losers from NASCAR Cup at Charlotte after dramatic finish

NASCAR Cup

NAS NASCAR Cup

Charlotte II

15 h

Winners and losers from NASCAR Cup at Charlotte after dramatic finish

Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.

From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.

You have 2 options:

Become a subscriber.
Disable your adblocker.

Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here

Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page

Manage Alerts