Subscribe

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Autosport Plus

Discover premium content
Subscribe

Kyle Busch takes NASCAR Sprint Cup pole at Watkins Glen

Kyle Busch claimed his first road course pole position in the NASCAR Sprint Cup after heading qualifying for Sunday's race at Watkins Glen

The Joe Gibbs Toyota driver was the last in the order to complete his flying lap after setting the pace in first practice. Just as AJ Allmendinger was ready to celebrate his second career pole, Busch bumped him from the top spot with a record lap of 1m10.767s - beating the Richard Petty Motorsports driver's benchmark by 0.2s second.

Busch, a former winner at The Glen, claimed his eighth Cup pole, but his first of the year.

"All in all the lap was really good," Busch said. "It seemed to be a pretty clean lap. There's a couple of moments in which I slipped, I don't think I did that great but we were able to get the throttle down and accelerate out of the turns as we needed and I think that's where a lot of the time was made up.

"I've won races at road courses but had yet to be the fastest guy for one lap. Today we did that, Joey Logano did it at [Sears Point] so Joe Gibbs Racing sweeps the road course poles which is great. Hopefully we can get a win."

Allmendinger will start beside Busch on the front row, having shown strong race pace during Friday's practice sessions.

Allmendinger's team-mate Marcos Ambrose had looked favourite to claim pole, but his qualifying run was not as clean as his final practice, when he had been the only driver to break into the 69-second bracket.

The Australian showed enough race pace however to be regarded as a strong favorite for victory.

"I felt a little unfortunate... just overdrove it a little bit," said Ambrose. "But we're proud of our efforts. It would have been great to be on the front row with AJ, but we'll start third, we've got a great package, I feel really confident and we'll just see how the day unfolds.

"It's going to be interesting to see how guys do on the strategy and break-wear and all those factors that come into play on a road course. Hopefully we make the right judgement calls."

Reigning champion Jimmie Johnson held provisional pole for a while and ended up fourth ahead of last year's winner Juan Pablo Montoya, who complained of a loose car on his flying lap. The Earnhardt Ganassi driver was among the most consistent on race-trim on Friday's final practice.

The Stewart-Haas Racing duo of Ryan Newman and five-time event winner Tony Stewart were sixth and seventh ahead of points leader Carl Edwards, the fastest Ford runner for Roush Fenway. Michael Waltrip Racing's Martin Truex Jr and Furniture Row's Regan Smith rounded out the top 10.

Kurt Busch, who had claimed pole for the Nationwide Series race earlier in the day with a new track record, didn't fare as well on his Cup qualifying run and ended up only 27th, his Penske Dodge team-mate Brad Keselowski ending up 12th.

The biggest loser of the session was Kyle Busch's team-mate Denny Hamlin, who lost control of his car at the exit of Turn 5 and ended up hitting the barrier. He will thus see the green flag wave from the back of the grid.

Joe Nemechek was the fastest of the non-guaranteed drivers, while Dave Blaney, Brian Simo and PJ Jones failed to make the field.

Sunday's weather forecast has teams fearing a possible washout for race day, showing an 80 per cent chance of rain.


Pos  Driver              Team/Car                     Time        Gap
 1.  Kyle Busch          Gibbs Toyota                 1m09.767s   
 2.  AJ Allmendinger     Petty Ford                   1m09.977s   + 0.210s
 3.  Marcos Ambrose      Petty Ford                   1m10.009s   + 0.242s
 4.  Jimmie Johnson      Hendrick Chevrolet           1m10.188s   + 0.421s
 5.  Juan Pablo Montoya  Earnhardt Ganassi Chevrolet  1m10.193s   + 0.426s
 6.  Ryan Newman         Stewart Haas Chevrolet       1m10.383s   + 0.616s
 7.  Tony Stewart        Stewart Haas Chevrolet       1m10.426s   + 0.659s
 8.  Carl Edwards        Roush Fenway Ford            1m10.446s   + 0.679s
 9.  Martin Truex Jr     Waltrip Toyota               1m10.578s   + 0.811s
10.  Regan Smith         Furniture Row Chevrolet      1m10.594s   + 0.827s
11.  Bobby Labonte       JTG Daugherty Toyota         1m10.608s   + 0.841s
12.  Brad Keselowski     Penske Dodge                 1m10.612s   + 0.845s
13.  Joey Logano         Gibbs Toyota                 1m10.614s   + 0.847s
14.  Jamie McMurray      Earnhardt Ganassi Chevrolet  1m10.678s   + 0.911s
15.  Boris Said          Phoenix Chevrolet            1m10.729s   + 0.962s
16.  David Ragan         Roush Fenway Ford            1m10.815s   + 1.048s
17.  Jeff Gordon         Hendrick Chevrolet           1m10.871s   + 1.104s
18.  Kasey Kahne         Red Bull Toyota              1m11.130s   + 1.363s
19.  Clint Bowyer        Childress Chevrolet          1m11.213s   + 1.446s
20.  Brian Vickers       Red Bull Toyota              1m11.312s   + 1.545s
21.  Joe Nemechek        NEMCO Toyota                 1m11.323s   + 1.556s
22.  Mark Martin         Hendrick Chevrolet           1m11.339s   + 1.572s
23.  Kevin Harvick       Childress Chevrolet          1m11.407s   + 1.640s
24.  Matt Kenseth        Roush Fenway Ford            1m11.413s   + 1.646s
25.  Dale Earnhardt Jr   Hendrick Chevrolet           1m11.431s   + 1.664s
26.  Casey Mears         Germain Toyota               1m11.443s   + 1.676s
27.  Kurt Busch          Penske Dodge                 1m11.454s   + 1.687s
28.  Greg Biffle         Roush Fenway Ford            1m11.456s   + 1.689s
29.  Scott Speed         Max Q Ford                   1m11.487s   + 1.720s
30.  JJ Yeley            Whitney Chevrolet            1m11.543s   + 1.776s
31.  Robby Gordon        Gordon Dodge                 1m11.605s   + 1.838s
32.  Paul Menard         Childress Chevrolet          1m11.733s   + 1.966s
33.  Michael McDowell    HP Toyota                    1m11.733s   + 1.966s
34.  TJ Bell             LTD Chevrolet                1m11.749s   + 1.982s
35.  Andrew Ranger       FAS Lane Ford                1m12.075s   + 2.308s
36.  Andy Lally          TRG Chevrolet                1m12.179s   + 2.412s
37.  Mike Skinner        Germain Toyota               1m12.218s   + 2.451s
38.  Ron Fellows         Baldwin Chevrolet            1m12.299s   + 2.532s
39.  David Reutimann     Waltrip Toyota               1m12.497s   + 2.730s
40.  Jeff Burton         Childress Chevrolet          1m12.641s   + 2.874s
41.  David Gilliland     Front Row Ford               1m13.293s   + 3.526s
42.  Denny Hamlin        Gibbs Toyota                 -           -
43.  Terry Labonte       FAS Lane Ford                1m13.587s   + 3.820s
                                                                  

Be part of the Autosport community

Join the conversation
Previous article Feud between Jimmie Johnson and Kurt Busch drags on to Watkins Glen
Next article Ambrose claims maiden Cup win at delayed Watkins Glen race

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Autosport Plus

Discover premium content
Subscribe