Kyle Busch tops Logano for Phoenix pole

With an average lap speed of 140.116 mph, Busch withstood a late challenge from Joey Logano to win the pole for Sunday’s Bluegreen Vacations 500 at ISM Raceway near Phoenix.

While Busch is in good position to advance to the Championship 4 on points, the pole at Phoenix puts him in an excellent position to win his way to the finale. Busch has won the last two Phoenix races.

The pole is the 32nd of Busch’s NASCAR Cup Series career but first since last October at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway.

“I think this is actually the first race all year we made a mock (qualifying) run in practice, maybe there’s something to that,” Busch said. “The guys did a great job. We fight hard every week trying to figure out what we need to do to continue to improve and get better and a lot of others guys have certainly done that over the year.

“Hopefully today bodes well for tomorrow. I really don’t know. The schedule is all different with all practice all in one day and then just qualifying today. Overall, proud to start out front in this very important race and very important with track position and such.”

Reminded his closest competitor in the playoff standings, Logano, will start alongside him, Busch was asked his approach in keeping tabs on the No. 22 Ford.

“When we first rolled out in practice yesterday Logano was really good. We improved our car a lot from that and hopefully we can keep him behind us and not have to allow him to pass us and keep the track position that we need to keep.”

Logano (139.752 mph) ended up second and Denny Hamlin third (139.394 mph). Martin Truex Jr. was fourth-fastest and Kyle Larson rounded out the top-five.

Completing the rest of the top-10 starters are Chase Elliott, Kevin Harvick, Kurt Busch, Erik Jones and Ryan Blaney.

Playoff drivers claimed the top seven positions while the final playoff driver, Blaney, was 10th.

Four drivers – Elliott, William Byron, Matt DiBenedetto and Ross Chastain – each failed pre-qualifying inspection twice. 

Each team had its car chief ejected for the remainder of the weekend and will lose 15 minutes of practice time next weekend at Homestead.

Cla	#	Driver		Manufacturer	Time	Gap	Mph
1	18	Kyle Busch		Toyota	25.693		140.116
2	22	Joey Logano		Ford	25.760	0.067	139.752
3	11	Denny Hamlin		Toyota	25.826	0.133	139.394
4	19	Martin Truex Jr.		Toyota	25.839	0.146	139.324
5	42	Kyle Larson		Chevrolet	25.855	0.162	139.238
6	9	Chase Elliott		Chevrolet	25.866	0.173	139.179
7	4	Kevin Harvick		Ford	25.914	0.221	138.921
8	1	Kurt Busch		Chevrolet	25.916	0.223	138.910
9	20	Erik Jones		Toyota	25.925	0.232	138.862
10	12	Ryan Blaney		Ford	25.945	0.252	138.755
11	10	Aric Almirola		Ford	25.972	0.279	138.611
12	2	Brad Keselowski		Ford	25.989	0.296	138.520
13	14	Clint Bowyer		Ford	26.008	0.315	138.419
14	88	Alex Bowman		Chevrolet	26.021	0.328	138.350
15	41	Daniel Suarez		Ford	26.062	0.369	138.132
16	95	Matt DiBenedetto		Toyota	26.080	0.387	138.037
17	37	Chris Buescher		Chevrolet	26.091	0.398	137.979
18	24	William Byron		Chevrolet	26.132	0.439	137.762
19	21	Paul Menard		Ford	26.179	0.486	137.515
20	6	Ryan Newman		Ford	26.206	0.513	137.373
21	34	Michael McDowell		Ford	26.263	0.570	137.075
22	48	Jimmie Johnson		Chevrolet	26.268	0.575	137.049
23	43	Darrell Wallace Jr.		Chevrolet	26.278	0.585	136.997
24	17	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.		Ford	26.288	0.595	136.945
25	47	Ryan Preece		Chevrolet	26.330	0.637	136.726
26	36	John Hunter Nemechek		Ford	26.351	0.658	136.617
27	8	Daniel Hemric		Chevrolet	26.360	0.667	136.571
28	3	Austin Dillon		Chevrolet	26.423	0.730	136.245
29	13	Ty Dillon		Chevrolet	26.560	0.867	135.542
30	38	David Ragan		Ford	26.586	0.893	135.410
31	32	Corey Lajoie		Ford	26.600	0.907	135.338
32	15	Ross Chastain		Chevrolet	26.933	1.240	133.665
33	00	Landon Cassill		Chevrolet	26.993	1.300	133.368
34	52	Bayley Currey		Chevrolet	27.042	1.349	133.126
35	51	Garrett Smithley		Chevrolet	27.149	1.456	132.602
36	27	Joe Nemechek		Chevrolet	27.357	1.664	131.593
37	77	Reed Sorenson		Chevrolet	27.834	2.141	129.338
38	66	Joey Gase		Toyota	27.903	2.210	129.018
39	53	J.J. Yeley		Ford