Qualifying report
NASCAR Cup Dover
Kyle Busch edges Truex for first pole of 2017 season
There have been times this season when Joe Gibbs Racing has struggled for speed but not on Friday.
Jim Utter
Edited: Jun 3, 2017, 6:15 PM
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Kyle Busch held off a strong challenge from Martin Truex Jr. to win the pole for Sunday’s AAA 400 at Dover (Del.) International Speedway as Toyotas swept the top four starting positions.
Busch’s average lap speed of 158.954 mph was just enough to top Truex in the third and final round (158.877 mph).
Daniel Suarez qualified third - his best start of the season – while fellow JGR driver Matt Kenseth was fourth. Kyle Larson rounded out the top-five.
Rounding out the top 12 positions: Kurt Busch, Erik Jones, Brad Keselowski, Austin Dillon, Denny Hamlin, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
The pole is Busch’s first of the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season and 20th of his career.
“It feels good, it feels great to beat (Truex),” Busch said. “Those guys are really on it. Being on the pole here will give us a really good pit (stall) selection and get us some track position right off the bat.
“We’ll work on our Camry tomorrow in practice and make sure we have a good race set-up underneath it.”
Busch called the new aero package’s debut at Dover this weekend “very edgy.”
“It’s a lot slower than it was last year,” he said. “I think it’s almost close to half-a-second or maybe more than that slower than last year. It’s definitely on edge on entry to the corners.”
Round 2
Kyle Busch edged his older brother Kurt to lead the way in the 10-minute second round of qualifying. Kyle’s average lap speed of 159.617 mph was enough to hold off Kurt (159.102 mph).
In all, the top three performers in Round 2 – Stenhouse was third-fastest – cleared the 159 mph barrier when no one did in Round 1.
Jones was fourth-fastest and Truex was fifth.
Also advancing to the final round were Larson, Kenseth, Austin Dillon, Suarez, Hamlin, Keselowski and Earnhardt.
Ryan Newman went out late in the session in an attempt to crack the Top 12 but ended up 13th-fastest.
“We just don’t have enough speed,” he said. “We were good enough to be 13th and we were really close.”
Among those also failing to advance were Jimmie Johnson, Ryan Blaney, Chase Elliott, Kevin Harvick and Clint Bowyer.
Earnhardt was the only one of the four Hendrick Motorsports drivers to move on to the final round.
Round 1
Larson backed up his performance from practice on Friday and edged Truex for the top average lap speed (158.983 mph) in the first 15-minute knockout session. Truex came in at 158.835 mph.
Kurt Busch posted the third-fastest speed, Suarez fourth and Jamie McMurray was fifth.
Denny Hamlin and Ryan Blaney both looked like they would fail to advance out of Round 1 but both made late runs in the session and locked in the 14th and 17th position, respectively.
Among those who failed to advance were Joey Logano, Chris Buescher, Regan Smith and Danica Patrick.
“We just didn’t have enough speed,” Logano said. “We were loose on the first run and then we over-adjusted and were too tight in the second run.”
It was only the second time this season Logano has failed to advance out of the first round of qualifying.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. felt much more comfortable with his car on Friday and posted the 11th-best speed in the first round.
“I couldn’t turn into Turn 3 because it was going to spin out – at least I thought it was,” Earnhardt said over his team radio.
Unlike last week at Charlotte Motor Speedway, all Cup teams cleared pre-qualifying inspection to take part in the first round.
Cla#DriverManufacturerTimeGapMph 1 18 
Kyle Busch Toyota 22.648 158.653 2 78 Martin Truex Jr. Toyota 22.659 0.011 156.713 3 19 
Daniel Suarez Toyota 22.735 0.087 158.346 4 20 Matt Kenseth Toyota 22.753 0.105 156.345 5 42 Kyle Larson Chevrolet 22.759 0.111 158.179 6 41 Kurt Busch Ford 22.764 0.116 158.144 7 77 Erik Jones Toyota 22.831 0.183 157.680 8 2 Brad Keselowski Ford 22.874 0.226 157.384 9 3 Austin Dillon Chevrolet 22.914 0.266 156.535 10 11 Denny Hamlin Toyota 22.925 0.277 157.034 11 88 Dale Earnhardt Jr. Chevrolet 23.037 0.389 156.270 12 17 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Ford 23.077 0.429 155.999 13 31 Ryan Newman Chevrolet 22.836 0.188 157.020 14 48 Jimmie Johnson Chevrolet 22.851 0.203 157.308 15 21 Ryan Blaney Ford 22.865 0.217 157.089 16 24 Chase Elliott Chevrolet 22.881 0.233 156.747 17 6 Trevor Bayne Ford 22.887 0.239 157.295 18 4 Kevin Harvick Ford 22.892 0.244 157.260 19 1 Jamie McMurray Chevrolet 22.907 0.259 156.678 20 5 Kasey Kahne Chevrolet 22.928 0.280 156.631 21 13 Ty Dillon Chevrolet 22.968 0.320 156.740 22 14 Clint Bowyer Ford 22.978 0.330 156.672 23 27 Paul Menard Chevrolet 23.011 0.363 156.447 24 47 A.J. Allmendinger Chevrolet 23.015 0.367 156.420 25 32 Matt DiBenedetto Ford 23.017 0.369 156.406 26 22 Joey Logano Ford 23.042 0.394 156.236 27 34 Landon Cassill Ford 23.047 0.399 156.203 28 95 Michael McDowell Chevrolet 23.067 0.419 156.067 29 37 Chris Buescher Chevrolet 23.120 0.472 155.709 30 43 Regan Smith Ford 23.136 0.488 154.759 31 10 Danica Patrick Ford 23.162 0.514 154.566 32 23 Gray Gaulding Toyota 23.269 0.621 153.656 33 38 David Ragan Ford 23.288 0.640 154.586 34 83 Ryan Sieg Toyota 23.514 0.866 153.100 35 72 Cole Whitt Chevrolet 23.696 1.048 151.924 36 15 Ross Chastain Chevrolet 23.738 1.090 151.656 37 66 Timmy Hill Chevrolet 23.864 1.216 150.855 38 51 Cody Ware Chevrolet 23.988 1.340 150.075 39 33 Jeffrey Earnhardt Chevrolet 24.036 1.388 149.775
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