Qualifying report

NASCAR Cup Pocono II

Kyle Busch beats Truex for Pocono pole

Kyle Busch and Martin Truex Jr., will line up on the front row for the Overton’s 400 — setting up for a potential rematch of last Sunday's battle at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Lee Spencer

Edited: Jul 30, 2017, 6:19 PM

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Polesitter Kyle Busch, Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota

Kyle Busch, Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota

For Busch, it was his fifth pole of 2017 and his fourth pole at Pocono Raceway.

Busch was the ninth driver to take a lap and bumped Jamie McMurray from the top with a lap of 179.372mph on Sunday.

“Great work guys, you cut it a little close that first round,” Adam Stevens told his driver.

“Just how I planned it,” Busch replied. “Nice job.”

With three seconds remaining on the clock, Truex posted a lap of 178.866mph just short of Busch’s time. Although Truex took out his fellow Toyota driver last weekend setting up a rivalry between the squad, the driver of the No. 78 Furniture Row Racing car is looking at putting the incident behind him.

“I look forward to racing clean with them today and battling them for the win,” Truex said.

McMurray will start third followed by Denny Hamlin, June winner Ryan Blaney, Kevin Harvick, Clint Bowyer, Daniel Suarez, Erik Jones, Joey Logano, Brad Keselowski and Kasey Kahne.

“18 is getting ready to kick our ass, but nice job,” the No. 1 team told McMurray after he captured the provisional pole.

Round 2

Denny Hamlin was the second driver out for the second round and his lap of 177.845mph held on for the top speed of the 12 cars transferring to the final trial.

Kyle Busch, Martin Truex Jr., Ryan Blaney, Daniel Suarez, Kevin Harvick, Jamie McMurray, Clint Bowyer, Joey Logano, Kasey Kahne, Erik Jones and Brad Keselowski all advanced.

Logano was the first car on the track for the second round followed by Hamlin, Chase Elliott, Matt Kenseth, Michael McDowell, Ryan Newman, Blaney, Kahne, Keselowski and Kyle Larson.

With seven minutes to go, Harvick, Suarez and Boywer established times. Two minutes later, Truex, Kyle Busch, McMurray and Trevor Bayne posted

“It’s a great effort,” said McDowell, who ended up 17th. “We qualified really well.”

Round 1

Martin Truex Jr. got a late start to the first round of qualifying but his lap of 176.915mph topped the speed chart.

Daniel Suarez, Ryan Blaney, Jamie McMurray, Erik Jones, Kyle Larson, Kurt Busch, Kasey Kahne, Brad Keselowski, Denny Hamlin, Kevin Harvick and Ryan Newman rounded out the top 12.

Blaney was the fourth driver on the track — and moved to the top of the board with a lap of 176.512mph. In the first five minutes, Blaney remained on top followed by Kahne, Keselowski, Michael McDowell, Paul Menard, Trevor Bayne, Austin Dillon and Aric Almirola.

Just before the 10-minute mark, Suarez bumped Blaney for first with a lap of 176.651mph. McMurray was third followed by Larson, Kahne, Keselowski, Hamlin, Harvick, Newman, Clint Bowyer Bowyer, Matt Kenseth and Joey Logano.

“I messed up a little in the tunnel turn so I wasn’t wide open on the exit,” said Kahne, the best of the Hendrick Motorsports cars in the first round.

Truex was the 33rd driver on the track and made his first lap with six minutes remaining in Round 1 and vaulted to the top.

With three minutes to go, Chris Buescher, who was delayed coming out of inspection completed his warm up lap. He ended up 23rd. Aric Almirola made a second attempt and knocked Austin Dillon out of the top 24 — but it was short-lived. Dillon returned to the track and posted the 22nd-fastest lap and bumped Almirola to 25th. Dillon was knocked out as was Paul Menard returned to the track for a second attempt. Dale Earnhardt Jr.,completed his second lap with 34-seconds on the clock. Earnhardt ran 24th and was quickly bumped. He took an insurance lap and ended up 21st.

“I can’t touch the brake, I’m so loose,” Earnhardt said.

Cla#DriverManufacturerTimeGapMph 1 18 united_states Kyle Busch Toyota 50.175 179.372 2 78 Martin Truex Jr. Toyota 50.317 0.142 178.866 3 1 Jamie McMurray Chevrolet 50.552 0.377 178.034 4 11 Denny Hamlin Toyota 50.635 0.460 177.743 5 21 Ryan Blaney Ford 50.682 0.507 177.578 6 4 Kevin Harvick Ford 50.708 0.533 177.487 7 14 united_states Clint Bowyer Ford 50.801 0.626 177.162 8 19 mexico Daniel Suarez Toyota 50.844 0.669 177.012 9 77 Erik Jones Toyota 50.869 0.694 176.925 10 22 Joey Logano Ford 50.986 0.811 176.519 11 2 Brad Keselowski Ford 51.046 0.871 176.312 12 5 Kasey Kahne Chevrolet 51.206 1.031 175.761 13 24 united_states Chase Elliott Chevrolet 51.116 0.941 176.070 14 48 Jimmie Johnson Chevrolet 51.167 0.992 175.895 15 20 Matt Kenseth Toyota 51.236 1.061 175.658 16 42 Kyle Larson Chevrolet 51.296 1.121 25.872 17 95 Michael McDowell Chevrolet 51.356 1.181 175.247 18 41 Kurt Busch Ford 51.375 1.200 175.182 19 6 united_states Trevor Bayne Ford 51.446 1.271 174.941 20 31 Ryan Newman Chevrolet 51.576 1.401 174.500 21 17 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Ford 51.576 1.401 174.500 22 10 Danica Patrick Ford 51.577 1.402 174.496 23 88 Dale Earnhardt Jr. Chevrolet 51.684 1.509 174.135 24 37 Chris Buescher Chevrolet 52.108 1.933 172.718 25 43 united_states Aric Almirola Ford 51.563 1.388 174.544 26 3 Austin Dillon Chevrolet 51.567 1.392 174.530 27 27 Paul Menard Chevrolet 51.615 1.440 172.728 28 47 A.J. Allmendinger Chevrolet 51.906 1.731 173.390 29 32 Matt DiBenedetto Ford 52.056 1.881 172.891 30 13 Ty Dillon Chevrolet 52.098 1.923 172.751 31 34 united_states Landon Cassill Ford 52.435 2.260 171.641 32 72 Cole Whitt Chevrolet 52.450 2.275 171.592 33 38 David Ragan Ford 52.507 2.332 171.406 34 23 Corey Lajoie Toyota 52.581 2.406 171.164 35 15 Gray Gaulding Chevrolet 53.228 3.053 169.084 36 83 Stephen Leicht Toyota 55.445 5.270 162.323 37 55 united_states Derrike Cope Toyota 57.440 7.265 156.685 38 33 Jeffrey Earnhardt Chevrolet 0.000 0.000

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