Kyle Busch earns third straight pole with Watkins Glen flyer

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