Kenseth takes Richmond pole over Blaney

Kenseth saved his best lap for the final round of knockout qualifying, winning the pole for Sunday’s Toyota Owners 400 at Richmond (Va.) International Raceway.

Kenseth’s average lap speed in the final round, 121.076 mph, was good enough to eclipse Ryan Blaney for the top spot.

Martin Truex Jr. was third, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. was fourth and Joey Logano as fifth-fastest.

The pole is Kenseth’s first this season, 19th of his Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series career and second at Richmond.

“I didn’t feel like I had the perfect lap but I had some great speed,” Kenseth said immediately after qualifying ended. “The guys didn’t a great job adjusting in between rounds.

“We had enough speed that we only had to do one lap in each of the first two rounds. We improved a little bit on our second lap (in the final session).”

Kenseth said his No. 20 Toyota team would welcome the change of scenery up front.

“This year has not been a good year for us, obviously. We finished strong at Bristol but we didn’t get to qualify because of the rain. That put us in the middle of the pack,” he said. “We haven’t been getting any Stage points – we’re buried in the (series) points.

“Hopefully we can start up front and stay up front this week.”

Finishing up the top 12 positions are Kevin Harvick, Kyle Busch, Clint Bowyer, Kurt Busch, Jamie McMurray, Daniel Suarez and Dale Earnhardt Jr.

“I thought it was a solid effort. We weren’t great the first round. We kept getting steps better each round. That’s something we’ve really done a great job of this year," Blaney said. "That’s what we struggled a lot with last year — going round to round. This year we seemed to be improving round-to-round. That’s always nice to get that communication going. That’s something to be proud of."

Round 2

Logano led the way in the 10-minute second round, again besting Harvick. Logano’s average lap speed at 121.468 mph just edged Harvick (120.979 mph).

Stenhouse ended up third, McMurray fourth and Truex was fifth-fastest.

Also moving on to the final round were Kenseth, Kurt Busch, Kyle Busch, Blaney, Earnhardt, Suarez and Bowyer.

Bowyer and Ryan Newman actually tied in average speed for the final transfer position, but Bowyer was awarded the position based on a tiebreaker (owners points).

Among those who also failed to advance were Denny Hamlin, Jimmie Johnson, Brad Keselowski, Kyle Larson and Erik Jones.

“I don’t know why we keep getting slower between rounds,” Hamlin said over his team radio as the second round ended.

Hamlin has three career wins at Richmond, including the most recent race last fall.

Round 1

Logano technically led the way in the first 20-minute qualifying session but he and Harvick both posted the same average lap speed at 120.870 mph.

Logano gains the top position by virtue of a tiebreaker, which is who is highest in owners points.

Bowyer was third, Johnson fourth and Hamlin fifth-fastest.

Among those who failed to advance to the second round were Aric Almirola, Paul Menard, Trevor Bayne and Austin Dillon.

“The track was just really slick and we were just too much on top of the race track,” Almirola said. “We’ve got two practices tomorrow to get our (car) running better.”

Austin Dillon ran a qualifying lap, but he has to start Sunday’s race from the rear of the field after his No. 3 Richard Childress Racing team failed the pre-race laser inspection station five times prior to last weekend’s race.

The first driver didn’t hit the track until five minutes had elapsed in the first round as many teams were waiting for some cloud cover that could potentially cool the track and increase speeds.

Cla	#	Driver	Manufacturer	Laps	Time	Gap	Interval	Mph
1	20	Matt Kenseth	Toyota	2	22.300			121.076
2	21	Ryan Blaney	Ford	2	22.341	0.041	0.041	120.854
3	78	Martin Truex Jr.	Toyota	2	22.373	0.073	0.032	120.681
4	17	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	Ford	2	22.412	0.112	0.039	120.471
5	22	Joey Logano	Ford	5	22.429	0.129	0.017	120.380
6	4	Kevin Harvick	Ford	1	22.439	0.139	0.010	120.326
7	18	Kyle Busch	Toyota	2	22.468	0.168	0.029	120.171
8	14	Clint Bowyer	Ford	2	22.473	0.173	0.005	120.144
9	41	Kurt Busch	Ford	3	22.495	0.195	0.022	120.027
10	1	Jamie McMurray	Chevrolet	2	22.558	0.258	0.063	119.691