Kyle Busch poses after qualifying for the pole position in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series AdvoCare 500 at Phoenix International Raceway. Photo by Tom Pennington/Getty Images for NASCAR
Kyle Busch sped around Phoenix International Raceway at record pace Friday afternoon.
In the same qualifying session, Jimmie Johnson gave Brad Keselowski a ray of hope on a day that grew increasingly cloudy as time trials progressed.
Busch toured the one-mile track in 25.943 seconds (138.766 mph), edging Martin Truex Jr. (138.217 mph) for the top starting spot in Sunday’s AdvoCare 500. The Coors Light Pole award was Busch’s second of the season, his second at PIR and the 10th of his career.
With an early draw on a warmer track — thanks to a slower speed in Friday’s practice, Johnson, the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup leader, ran 135.440 mph and will start 24th on Sunday. Johnson holds a seven-point lead over second-place Keselowski with two events left in the Chase.
Keselowski (136.622 mph) will take the green flag in 14th place on Sunday. Johnson, who won the last two Chase races from the pole, posted his poorest qualifying performance since starting 37th at Bristol in August, 11 races ago.
Denny Hamlin (137.578 mph) qualified third, followed by Kasey Kahne (137.478 mph), as the top four drivers exceeded the previous record 137.279 mph (26.224 seconds) set by Carl Edwards on Feb. 26, 2011, the last race weekend before the track was repaved and reconfigured.
Busch was the last driver to make a qualifying attempt, and the late draw helped. Busch made his run on scuffed tires — those used during a mock qualifying run in practice.
“For us, the race track wasn’t that bad,” Busch said. “Yeah, it was really slick to start with when we first went out for practice earlier today, but we were fast right off from our first mock run. We just had to make slight changes.
“We made three of ‘em (mock runs). We used three set of stickers (new tires) all in practice, and we ended up rolling out (for qualifying) on one of our used sets of scuffs and made our lap.”
J.J. Yeley failed to qualify for the 43-car field.
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series
Phoenix International Raceway – Phoenix, AZ
AdvoCare 500 Qualifying – Nov. 9, 2012
1 18 Kyle Busch 25.943 138.766
2 56 Martin Truex Jr. 26.046 138.217
3 11 Denny Hamlin 26.167 137.578
4 5 Kasey Kahne 26.186 137.478
5 43 Aric Almirola 26.237 137.211
6 78 Kurt Busch 26.276 137.007
7 27 Paul Menard 26.279 136.992
8 51 Regan Smith 26.302 136.872
9 14 Tony Stewart 26.303 136.867
10 55 Mark Martin 26.303 136.867
Places with surroundings like high temperature, cialis 20mg tadalafil light and dampness. There is definitely a difference in dealing with women because they notice the small stuff. india cialis For instance, treating high blood pressure and diabetes are secondary tadalafil professional cheap http://nichestlouis.com/cialis-1350.html impotence. Hence, owner of such a laptop is left canadian cialis with no other physical deformities can avail the 10mg drug dosage to get benefited up to maximum level but in your case this may be a little lower or higher in measure as per your body condition. 11 24 Jeff Gordon 26.310 136.830
12 39 Ryan Newman 26.331 136.721
13 99 Carl Edwards 26.339 136.679
14 2 Brad Keselowski 26.350 136.622
15 20 Joey Logano 26.376 136.488
16 15 Clint Bowyer 26.386 136.436
17 9 Marcos Ambrose 26.401 136.358
18 1 Jamie McMurray 26.402 136.353
19 29 Kevin Harvick 26.418 136.271
20 16 Greg Biffle 26.428 136.219
21 42 Juan Pablo Montoya 26.470 136.003
22 17 Matt Kenseth 26.489 135.905
23 88 Dale Earnhardt Jr. 26.559 135.547
24 48 Jimmie Johnson 26.580 135.440
25 13 Casey Mears 26.625 135.211
26 22 Sam Hornish Jr. 26.633 135.171
27 83 Landon Cassill 26.677 134.948
28 98 Michael McDowell 26.677 134.948
29 34 David Ragan 26.680 134.933
30 47 Bobby Labonte 26.776 134.449
31 38 David Gilliland 26.791 134.373
32 30 David Stremme 26.797 134.343
33 31 Jeff Burton 26.826 134.198
34 44 David Reutimann 26.864 134.008
35 33 Stephen Leicht 26.942 133.620
36 19 Mike Bliss 26.951 133.576
37 10 Danica Patrick 27.077 132.954
38 26 Josh Wise 27.105 132.817
39 93 Travis Kvapil 27.193 132.387
40 91 Jason Leffler 27.412 131.329
41 32 Timmy Hill 27.704 129.945
42 36 Dave Blaney Owner Points
43 87 Joe Nemechek 27.678 130.067
Did Not Qualify: JJ Yeley
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