Kyle Busch earns third straight pole with Watkins Glen flyer
One week after picking up his first Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series victory of the season, Kyle Busch earned his third consecutive pole and sixth of the season.
Photo by: John Harrelson / NKP / Motorsport Images
Busch went early in the final 10-minute session and laid down an impressive average lap speed of 126.925 mph. No one else even got close to that mark as Kyle Larson ended up second-fastest (126.249 mph) – nearly seven-tenths of a second behind.
Martin Truex Jr. qualified third, Chase Elliott fourth and rookie Daniel Suarez completed the top five.
The pole is the 25th of Busch’s Cup career.
“Adam (Stevens, crew chief) and I talked about it yesterday – we thought it would be a little bit to our advantage to have the impound procedure (and the race shortly after qualifying),” Busch said. “All in all, great job by my team.
“This car is fast. Starting up front is one thing, maintain is another. We saw that yesterday (in the Xfinity race). All things considered, having the speed is good and sitting on the pole again is great for us.”
Erik Jones will start sixth, A.J. Allmendinger seventh, Brad Keselowski eighth, Jamie McMurray ninth, Jimmie Johnson 10th, Denny Hamlin 11th and Clint Bowyer 12th.
Neither Hamlin nor Bowyer made a run in the final round as each experienced braking issues after the first session.
Round 1
Multiple runs ended up producing faster qualifying runs in the first 25-minute round as Elliott led the way with an average lap speed of 126.076 mph, which came on his third attempt at a flying lap.
Elliott just eclipsed Truex (125.991 mph) for the top spot. McMurray was third, Suarez fourth and Kyle Busch completed the top-five.
Also advancing to the final round were Keselowski, Larson, Hamlin, Jones, Bowyer, Johnson and Allmendinger.
Joey Logano made a final attempt as time expired but could only capture the 13th position as he crossed the finish line.
“I definitely through the esses we lost a good chuck of speed,” Logano said. “We’re going to start from 13th and work our way up. It’s not the end of the world. We kind of got what we got.”
The first round was incident-free for the most part, as Ryan Newman was the only driver who got in trouble, spinning in Turn 1 on his first attempt.
Among those who failed to advance to the final round were Matt Kenseth, Ryan Blaney, Kurt Busch, Kevin Harvick, Kasey Kahne, Danica Patrick and Dale Earnhardt Jr.
“When I load the front, it’s way too positive,” Earnhardt said over team radio following his final run. “I don’t like it, the way the car drives.”
Kahne said he still thinks he’ll be able to do well in Sunday’s race despite starting 19th.
“The front was really good. I was pretty loose on both of my runs and that’s where we gave up the speed,” he said. “We should be able to pass cars.”
Cla | # | Driver | Manufacturer | Laps | Time | Gap | Interval | Mph |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 18 | Kyle Busch | Toyota | 1 | 69.490 | 126.925 | ||
2 | 42 | Kyle Larson | Chevrolet | 1 | 69.862 | 0.372 | 0.372 | 126.249 |
3 | 78 | Martin Truex Jr. | Toyota | 1 | 70.132 | 0.642 | 0.270 | 125.763 |
4 | 24 | Chase Elliott | Chevrolet | 3 | 70.232 | 0.742 | 0.100 | 125.584 |
5 | 19 | Daniel Suarez | Toyota | 1 | 70.305 | 0.815 | 0.073 | 125.453 |
6 | 77 | Erik Jones | Toyota | 1 | 70.314 | 0.824 | 0.009 | 125.437 |
7 | 47 | A.J. Allmendinger | Chevrolet | 1 | 70.353 | 0.863 | 0.039 | 125.368 |
8 | 2 | Brad Keselowski | Ford | 2 | 70.372 | 0.882 | 0.019 | 125.334 |
9 | 1 | Jamie McMurray | Chevrolet | 1 | 70.567 | 1.077 | 0.195 | 124.988 |
10 | 48 | Jimmie Johnson | Chevrolet | 1 | 71.114 | 1.624 | 0.547 | 124.026 |
11 | 11 | Denny Hamlin | Toyota | 0.000 | 0.000 | |||
12 | 14 | Clint Bowyer | Ford | 0.000 | 0.000 |
13 | 22 | Joey Logano | Ford | 3 | 70.618 | 0.660 | 0.025 | 124.897 |
14 | 95 | Michael McDowell | Chevrolet | 3 | 70.630 | 0.672 | 0.012 | 124.876 |
15 | 20 | Matt Kenseth | Toyota | 3 | 70.665 | 0.707 | 0.035 | 124.814 |
16 | 21 | Ryan Blaney | Ford | 3 | 70.687 | 0.729 | 0.022 | 124.775 |
17 | 37 | Chris Buescher | Chevrolet | 3 | 70.726 | 0.768 | 0.039 | 124.707 |
18 | 41 | Kurt Busch | Ford | 3 | 70.730 | 0.772 | 0.004 | 124.700 |
19 | 5 | Kasey Kahne | Chevrolet | 3 | 70.735 | 0.777 | 0.005 | 124.691 |
20 | 4 | Kevin Harvick | Ford | 2 | 70.740 | 0.782 | 0.005 | 124.682 |
21 | 27 | Paul Menard | Chevrolet | 3 | 70.806 | 0.848 | 0.066 | 124.566 |
22 | 17 | Ricky Stenhouse Jr. | Ford | 3 | 70.860 | 0.902 | 0.054 | 124.471 |
23 | 31 | Ryan Newman | Chevrolet | 4 | 70.937 | 0.979 | 0.077 | 124.336 |
24 | 13 | Ty Dillon | Chevrolet | 3 | 71.122 | 1.164 | 0.185 | 124.012 |
25 | 10 | Danica Patrick | Ford | 3 | 71.162 | 1.204 | 0.040 | 123.943 |
26 | 72 | Cole Whitt | Chevrolet | 3 | 71.162 | 1.204 | 0.000 | 123.943 |
27 | 3 | Austin Dillon | Chevrolet | 5 | 71.332 | 1.374 | 0.170 | 123.647 |
28 | 88 | Dale Earnhardt Jr. | Chevrolet | 5 | 71.442 | 1.484 | 0.110 | 123.457 |
29 | 43 | Aric Almirola | Ford | 3 | 71.556 | 1.598 | 0.114 | 123.260 |
30 | 6 | Trevor Bayne | Ford | 4 | 71.710 | 1.752 | 0.154 | 122.995 |
31 | 38 | David Ragan | Ford | 3 | 72.220 | 2.262 | 0.510 | 122.127 |
32 | 34 | Landon Cassill | Ford | 3 | 72.516 | 2.558 | 0.296 | 121.628 |
33 | 83 | Brett Moffitt | Toyota | 2 | 73.259 | 3.301 | 0.743 | 120.395 |
34 | 15 | Gary Klutt | Chevrolet | 3 | 73.261 | 3.303 | 0.002 | 120.391 |
35 | 33 | Boris Said | Chevrolet | 4 | 74.037 | 4.079 | 0.776 | 119.130 |
36 | 23 | Corey Lajoie | Toyota | 2 | 74.274 | 4.316 | 0.237 | 118.749 |
37 | 32 | Matt DiBenedetto | Ford | 1 | 74.790 | 4.832 | 0.516 | 117.930 |
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