Kyle Busch keeps riding the wave with Pocono pole
July 31, 2015
By Reid Spencer
NASCAR Wire Service
LONG POND, Pa. – He did it again.
Riding
a wave of success unprecedented in his NASCAR Sprint Cup Series career,
Kyle Busch streaked to the pole position on Friday at Pocono Raceway,
edging Kevin Harvick for the top starting spot in Sunday’s Windows 10
400 (on NBCSN at 1:30 p.m. ET).
Touring
the 2.5-mile triangular track in 50.444 seconds (178.416 mph), Busch
won his first Coors Light Pole Award of the season, his second at Pocono
(the first coming in 2010) and the 17th of his career.
Busch
is gunning for his fourth straight victory in the series after
returning from an 11-race injury absence, and he’s savoring every minute
of his extraordinary run of good fortune.
“I’ve
had plenty of times in my career when things have all gone in the wrong
direction, so this is a sweet change from that,” Busch said. “Sometimes
it happens for you, and you’re not exactly sure why, but if you look
back at the past couple of years, especially in the summer months, we
couldn’t hit anything right.
“This
year we’ve got four out of five wins. You just take it when you can get
it… We’re just trying to ride that wave as long as it’ll carry us—just
hope it’ll last another 16 weeks (through the Chase for the NASCAR
Sprint Cup).”
Joey
Logano (177.837 mph) was third fastest in the final round of knockout
qualifying, followed by Austin Dillon (177.658 mph) and Tony Stewart
(177.630 mph), who earned a top-five starting position for the second
straight week.
Before time trials, Busch wasn’t sure he even had a shot at the pole.
“I
knew I had a fast car, but I wasn’t sure we could get the balance of it
right,” Busch said. “But that last run was the best it’s been all day.
(Crew chief) Adam Stevens and these guys, they did it again. Like I
said, I knew we had some speed. We just had to put it in the right
perspective for the three corners of this race track.”
Harvick posted his best lap of the afternoon moments before Busch knocked him off the provisional pole.
“You
never know, with the way the qualifying session is, how much faster
everybody’s going to go,” Harvick said. “I knew our fastest lap needed
to be the last time on the race track, so I knew that we had done a good
job.
“I
probably gave up just a little bit of time, just the slightest bit of
chatter through Turn 1, but (Turns) 2 and 3 were pretty good, and that’s
what we needed to do.”
Notes:
Jeff Gordon qualified 10th for his final start at the Tricky Triangle, a
track that has accounted for six of his 92 career victories… June
Pocono winner Martin Truex Jr. just missed advancing to the final round
and will start 13th… Dale Earnhardt Jr., who swept both Pocono Cup races
last year, lines up 15th, five spots in front of Danica Patrick.
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