Kyle Busch takes All-Star pole
Kyle Busch and his Joe Gibbs crew were the fastest to complete three flying laps and a four-tyre pitstop to take pole in qualifying for the NASCAR Sprint All-Star Challenge at Lowe's Motor Speedway
Fans had to get used to seeing Busch's name at the top of the charts, as he not only took pole for the weekend's main event, but also for the supporting Craftsman Truck Series race.
Busch set an aggregate time of 2:01.956 at an average speed of 132.853 mph - including a four-tyre pitstop - to claim his first ever pole in the Sprint All-Star Challenge.
"I'm surprised, I thought I got busted speeding there. If it wasn't it was that close - very close," said Busch. "Man, I can't thank these guys enough at Joe Gibbs Racing. Steve Addington (crew chief) and all these guys that work on this do such an awesome job for me. That thing is humming this weekend.
"If (Kevin) Harvick thought the Toyota had motors before, watch out now because we're coming big time. This stuff's nice. We just keep clicking them off and keep going. It's obviously paying off really, really well."
Busch was the last driver to complete his run among the 21 already guaranteed a start in Saturday's event. He knocked his former Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jeff Gordon off pole by nearly half a second, after the four-time champion's effort had looked unbeatable.
"Certainly knew that Kyle was going to be tough to beat," Gordon said. "We felt like he would be faster than us on the track. Of course you know he's going to be aggressive getting on to pit road and those are the areas that he beat us.
"So congratulations to those guys and we're going to be real happy and thrilled with our outside front row start. It's been a while since we've been there."
Kurt Busch will line up third, alongside DEI's Martin Truex Jr, while the third row of the grid will be all Roush-Fenway with Greg Biffle and Jamie McMurray taking fifth and sixth.
Pre-race favourite Carl Edwards didn't have a good qualifying while reigning champion and former All-Star winner Jimmie Johnson had trouble in the pits and eventually didn't even set a time.
Meanwhile Gillett Evernham's Elliot Sadler claimed pole position for the Sprint Showdown. Brian Vickers, whose team won the Pit Crew Challenge on Thursday, will start beside him on the front row in the 40-lap event that will give the top two finishers a spot in the field for the main race.
"With a 40-lap shoot-out format that we have, track position is everything," said Sadler. "We focused hard here at the test to get our car to qualify good and race good. We definitely want to race our way in. It would mean a lot to me to do that.
"I just want to be a part of the big show (All-Star Race). It's a great race to be a part of. No points involved and just racing very, very hard. I'm just looking forward to tomorrow; it should be a great day."
Sam Hornish Jr was best among the rookies in the Showdown qualifying, while Patrick Carpentier spun on his first lap and will start from the last row of the grid to try to make it into the main event.
All-Star race starting order: Pos Driver Car Speed Time 1. Kyle Busch Toyota 132.835 2:01.956 2. Jeff Gordon Chevrolet 132.251 2:02.494 + 0.538 3. Kurt Busch Dodge 131.539 2:03.157 + 1.201 4. Martin Truex Jr Chevrolet 131.357 2:03.328 + 1.372 5. Greg Biffle Ford 131.274 2:03.406 + 1.450 6. Jamie McMurray Ford 131.139 2:03.533 + 1.577 7. Jeff Burton Chevrolet 130.825 2:03.830 + 1.874 8. Ryan Newman Dodge 130.457 2:04.179 + 2.223 9. Clint Bowyer Chevrolet 130.342 2:04.288 + 2.332 10. Bobby Labonte Dodge 130.011 2:04.605 + 2.649 11. Dale Earnhardt Jr Chevrolet 129.939 2:04.674 + 2.718 12. Tony Stewart Toyota 129.791 2:04.816 + 2.860 13. Mark Martin Chevrolet 129.525 2:05.072 + 3.116 14. Matt Kenseth Ford 128.615 2:05.957 + 4.001 15. Juan Montoya Dodge 127.416 2:07.143 + 5.187 16. Kevin Harvick Chevrolet 126.679 2:07.882 + 5.926 17. Casey Mears Chevrolet 124.645 2:09.969 + 8.013 18. Dale Jarrett Toyota 123.157 2:11.539 + 9.583 19. Carl Edwards Ford 111.310 2:25.539 + 23.583 20. Denny Hamlin Toyota 102.796 2:37.594 + 35.638 21. Jimmie Johnson Chevrolet - - Showdown starting order: Pos Driver Car Speed Time 1. Elliott Sadler Dodge 185.014 29.187 2. Brian Vickers Toyota 184.786 29.223 + 0.036 3. David Ragan Ford 184.584 29.255 + 0.068 4. AJ Allmendinger Toyota 184.432 29.279 + 0.092 5. Robby Gordon Dodge 184.024 29.344 + 0.157 6. Dave Blaney Toyota 183.955 29.355 + 0.168 7. Joe Nemechek Chevrolet 183.930 29.359 + 0.172 8. Sam Hornish Jr Dodge 183.899 29.364 + 0.177 9. Scott Riggs Chevrolet 183.817 29.377 + 0.190 10. Travis Kvapil Ford 183.699 29.396 + 0.209 11. Johnny Sauter Chevrolet 183.624 29.408 + 0.221 12. Paul Menard Chevrolet 183.331 29.455 + 0.268 13. Reed Sorenson Dodge 183.113 29.490 + 0.303 14. Michael Waltrip Toyota 183.100 29.492 + 0.305 15. Kasey Kahne Dodge 183.082 29.495 + 0.308 16. David Gilliland Ford 182.113 29.652 + 0.465 17. David Reutimann Toyota 182.002 29.670 + 0.483 18. Chad McCumbee Dodge 181.757 29.710 + 0.523 19. Stanton Barrett Chevrolet 181.720 29.716 + 0.529 20. JJ Yeley Toyota 181.629 29.731 + 0.544 21. Bill Elliott Ford 181.342 29.778 + 0.591 22. Kyle Petty Dodge 181.080 29.821 + 0.634 23. Regan Smith Chevrolet 180.989 29.836 + 0.649 24. Tony Raines Dodge 177.602 30.405 + 1.218 25. Jeff Green Chevrolet 176.488 30.597 + 1.410 26. Carl Long Dodge 169.763 31.809 + 2.622 27. Patrick Carpentier Dodge 147.820 36.531 + 7.344
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