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Matt Kenseth starts NASCAR Sprint Cup Chase from Chicagoland pole

Matt Kenseth claimed his second pole position of the NASCAR Sprint Cup season in qualifying for Sunday's opening Chase round at Chicagoland Speedway

The Roush Fenway Racing driver confirmed the recent upturn in his qualifying form by posting a fastest lap of 29.469 seconds at an average speed of 183.243 mph, which bumped his team-mate Greg Biffle from pole and then held up as the benchmark for the rest of the session.

Kenseth, who starts the Chase from fourth place as the top ranked Ford driver, has now qualified among the top 10 nine times this season but most encouragingly, his last six top-10 starts have resulted in equally solid finishes.

"That was a great lap," Kenseth said. "Yesterday I really liked our car in qualifying trim. We had a pretty good lap there and for me to qualify this good, you know my car is pretty fast. We need to get a little bit more for [the race] but our car drove great today."

Richard Childress Racing's Paul Menard will start beside Kenseth from the front row, while behind them four Chase contenders will line up with Penske's Kurt Busch, Stewart Haas' Ryan Newman, Roush's Carl Edwards and the second Penske of Brad Keselowski completing the first three rows of the grid.

Biffle ended up seventh, followed by Red Bull's Brian Vickers, with Chase leader Kyle Busch and his Joe Gibbs Racing team-mate Joey Logano rounding out the top 10.

Reigning champion Jimmie Johnson will line up 12th as the best from the Hendrick Motorsports camp while RCR's Kevin Harvick was the lowest Chase qualifier, setting the 30th fastest time.

Wood Brothers' Trevor Bayne was the fastest of the non-guaranteed drivers in 28th. Travis Kvapil, David Starr, Stephen Leicht and Mike Skinner failed to make the field.

Pos  Driver              Team/Car                     Time     Gap
 1.  Matt Kenseth        Roush Fenway Ford            29.469s
 2.  Paul Menard         Childress Chevrolet          29.488s  + 0.019s
 3.  Kurt Busch          Penske Dodge                 29.503s  + 0.034s
 4.  Ryan Newman         Stewart Haas Chevrolet       29.507s  + 0.038s
 5.  Carl Edwards        Roush Fenway Ford            29.522s  + 0.053s
 6.  Brad Keselowski     Penske Dodge                 29.531s  + 0.062s
 7.  Greg Biffle         Roush Fenway Ford            29.565s  + 0.096s
 8.  Brian Vickers       Red Bull Toyota              29.575s  + 0.106s
 9.  Kyle Busch          Gibbs Toyota                 29.615s  + 0.146s
10.  Joey Logano         Gibbs Toyota                 29.620s  + 0.151s
11.  Bobby Labonte       JTG Daugherty Toyota         29.634s  + 0.165s
12.  Jimmie Johnson      Hendrick Chevrolet           29.667s  + 0.198s
13.  Regan Smith         Furniture Row Chevrolet      29.690s  + 0.221s
14.  Jamie McMurray      Earnhardt Ganassi Chevrolet  29.696s  + 0.227s
15.  David Ragan         Roush Fenway Ford            29.729s  + 0.260s
16.  Juan Pablo Montoya  Earnhardt Ganassi Chevrolet  29.752s  + 0.283s
17.  Marcos Ambrose      Petty Ford                   29.752s  + 0.283s
18.  AJ Allmendinger     Petty Ford                   29.767s  + 0.298s
19.  Dale Earnhardt Jr   Hendrick Chevrolet           29.784s  + 0.315s
20.  Martin Truex Jr     Waltrip Toyota               29.787s  + 0.318s
21.  Clint Bowyer        Childress Chevrolet          29.790s  + 0.321s
22.  Jeff Burton         Childress Chevrolet          29.790s  + 0.321s
23.  Jeff Gordon         Hendrick Chevrolet           29.807s  + 0.338s
24.  Kasey Kahne         Red Bull Toyota              29.812s  + 0.343s
25.  Mark Martin         Hendrick Chevrolet           29.822s  + 0.353s
26.  Tony Stewart        Stewart Haas Chevrolet       29.828s  + 0.359s
27.  Denny Hamlin        Gibbs Toyota                 29.879s  + 0.410s
28.  Trevor Bayne        Wood Brothers Ford           29.894s  + 0.425s
29.  David Reutimann     Waltrip Toyota               29.900s  + 0.431s
30.  Kevin Harvick       Childress Chevrolet          29.913s  + 0.444s
31.  Landon Cassill      Phoenix Chevrolet            29.973s  + 0.504s
32.  JJ Yeley            Front Row Ford               29.980s  + 0.511s
33.  Michael McDowell    HP Toyota                    29.990s  + 0.521s
34.  David Stremme       Inception Chevrolet          29.991s  + 0.522s
35.  Scott Speed         Whitney Ford                 30.000s  + 0.531s
36.  Joe Nemechek        NEMCO Toyota                 30.016s  + 0.547s
37.  Robby Gordon        Gordon Dodge                 30.039s  + 0.570s
38.  David Gilliland     Front Row Ford               30.196s  + 0.727s
39.  Dave Blaney         Baldwin Chevrolet            30.228s  + 0.759s
40.  Andy Lally          TRG Chevrolet                30.238s  + 0.769s
41.  Casey Mears         Germain Toyota               30.262s  + 0.793s
42.  Mike Bliss          FAS Lane Ford                30.313s  + 0.844s
43.  Josh Wise           Max Q Ford                   30.136s  + 0.667s

Did not qualify:

     Travis Kvapil       Front Row Ford               30.140s  + 0.671s
     David Starr         Leavine Ford                 30.214s  + 0.745s
     Stephen Leicht      Baldwin Chevrolet            30.310s  + 0.841s
     Mike Skinner        Germain Chevrolet            30.592s  + 1.123s

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