Kurt Busch earns Glen Busch pole
Kurt Busch will start from the best possible position to repeat last year's victory in the Busch Series race at Watkins Glen, after putting his car on pole position today during qualifying for the Zippo 200
Busch was one of the five drivers in the last qualifying group, as the field was split into ten groups according to the results from the first and only practice session from Friday, with the fastest going out last on the track, and every group running for five minutes.
The Penske driver set a fastest lap of 72.596 seconds, at an average speed of 121.540 mph, and was at one point half a second ahead of his nearest rival.
"I don't run Busch all that often and so when we come to the race track with this group of guys we're going for the win," Busch said. "We just won a small battle right now, there's still a big-time race this afternoon."
Juan Pablo Montoya was the one to get closest to Busch, finishing nearly three tenths of a second behind after a last lap effort in which he gained over four tenths relative to his previous best. However, he said switching from the Cup to the Busch car was getting a bit confusing.
"I think we're okay for the amount of downforce that we put on the car for qualifying relative to other people," he said.
"This car behaves totally different to the Cup car and I was driving it for an hour just a moment ago, so it's hard to know what to do. But I think we're okay for the race anyway."
Ryan Newman completed a good run for the Penske cars in third, ahead of Robby Gordon who was fastest from his group. Scott Pruett, driving the second Ganassi car finished fifth and was also fastest from his group.
Australian Marcos Ambrose, also fastest from his group was seventh, while Montreal winner Kevin Harvick will start the race from eleventh on the grid.
Points leader Carl Edwards qualified 23rd, having crashed heavily during Friday practice.
Pos Driver Car Time 1. Kurt Busch Dodge 72.569 2. Juan Montoya Dodge 72.846 + 0.277 3. Ryan Newman Dodge 73.002 + 0.433 4. Robby Gordon Ford 73.154 + 0.585 5. Scott Pruett Dodge 73.193 + 0.624 6. Jeff Burton Chevrolet 73.262 + 0.693 7. Marcos Ambrose Ford 73.285 + 0.716 8. Paul Menard Chevrolet 73.292 + 0.723 9. Boris Said Dodge 73.321 + 0.752 10. Denny Hamlin Chevrolet 73.359 + 0.790 11. Kevin Harvick Chevrolet 73.393 + 0.824 12. Brad Coleman Chevrolet 73.484 + 0.915 13. Greg Biffle Ford 73.500 + 0.931 14. Ron Fellows Chevrolet 73.525 + 0.956 15. Jorge Goeters Ford 73.567 + 0.998 16. Matt Kenseth Ford 73.659 + 1.090 17. Andy Lally Ford 73.683 + 1.114 18. Bobby Labonte Chevrolet 73.768 + 1.199 19. Casey Mears Chevrolet 73.855 + 1.286 20. Stephen Leicht Ford 74.064 + 1.495 21. Patrick Carpentier Dodge 74.098 + 1.529 22. Max Papis Chevrolet 74.171 + 1.602 23. Carl Edwards Ford 74.325 + 1.756 24. Andy Pilgrim Chevrolet 74.347 + 1.778 25. Steve Wallace Dodge 74.593 + 2.024 26. David Reutimann Toyota 74.774 + 2.205 27. Bobby Hamilton Jr Ford 74.949 + 2.380 28. David Gilliland Ford 75.265 + 2.696 29. Jason Leffler Toyota 75.311 + 2.742 30. Mike Wallace Chevrolet 75.979 + 3.410 31. Alex Garcia Chevrolet 76.202 + 3.633 32. Brent Sherman Chevrolet 76.250 + 3.681 33. Todd Kluever Ford 76.462 + 3.893 34. Kyle Krisiloff Ford 76.636 + 4.067 35. Derrike Cope Chevrolet 76.661 + 4.092 36. Kevin Lepage Chevrolet 77.136 + 4.567 37. Morgan Shepherd Dodge 77.257 + 4.688 38. John Graham Toyota 77.500 + 4.931 39. David Ragan Ford 77.901 + 5.332 40. Scott Gaylord Ford 78.999 + 6.430 41. Joe Fox Chevrolet 79.977 + 7.408
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