Kyle Busch poses in victory lane Friday after setting the track record in qualifying for the pole position for Sunday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Bristol Motor Speedway. Photo by Sean Gardner/NASCAR via Getty Images
Across the board, drivers marveled at the speed of NASCAR’s Generation-6 cars during qualifying for Sunday’s Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway.
None more than Kyle Busch, the fastest of nine drivers to break the 15-second mark on their qualifying lap. Prior to Friday, only three drivers (Ryan Newman, Carl Edwards, Jeff Gordon) had turned a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series qualifying lap in less than 15 seconds.
”I like driving it,” said Busch, whose 11th career pole marked his first Coors Light Pole Award at Bristol and the first time he’d qualified higher than ninth on the .533-mile oval. ”You can drive it a lot more like the older car we had years ago where you can abuse it a little bit.
”The previous (Generation-5) car was all about being smooth and precise. (With) this one, you can make a little more speed by driving it a little harder.”
Busch, no stranger to victory lane at Bristol, captured the pole with a lap 129.535 mph (14.813 seconds) in the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. Newman’s track record, set in 2003, had been 128.709 mph.
Each of Friday’s top three qualifiers — Busch, Kasey Kahne and Denny Hamlin — shattered Newman’s mark. Hamlin looked like he might join his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate on the front row until Kahne knocked him down a peg.
Brian Vickers, Paul Menard , Jamie McMurray, Brad Keselowski, Tony Stewart and Martin Truex Jr. also eclipsed 15 seconds, with Joey Logano rounding out the top 10.
”The car felt great during that lap,” said Busch, who has come from off the pace to win five times (including four of the last eight Cup races) at Bristol . ”We’ve never really worried too much about qualifying runs. We unloaded with a really good race car and we just kept fine-tuning to make it a little bit better — and we were able to get it where it was pretty quick in practice.”
For Hamlin, if even for just a couple laps, it was felt good to get back to all-out racing. Hamlin had spent recent days embroiled in controversy, refusing to pay a NASCAR-issued fine after critical comments regarding the Gen-6 car at Phoenix.
He had no gripe with his machinery on Friday.
”I’m pretty happy with what we’ve got,” said Hamlin, who earlier in the day said he had ”bigger fish to fry” than worrying about the $25,000 fine. ”For my team’s sake, we need to focus on running as good as we can and trying to make this Chase. Any distraction is something that you don’t need — especially when the competition is so close. You just can’t afford anything that hampers your ability to go win, so this is going to be a step in the right direction for us.”
Kahne, driving the No. 5 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports, thought he might have challenged Busch had he not been a little tight between turns 1 and 2.
”I felt like I may have given up a little bit in 1 and 2, which would have made it really close for the pole,” Kahne said. ”But still we were very good in 3 and 4. The car was balanced really nice.”
How fast can cars go at Bristol? Maybe closer to 14 seconds than 15, according to Busch.
”I think a lot of it is probably (about the) tire,” he said. ”You could certainly put a softer tire on here and go lights-out. You’d have trouble making it very much longer after that, but I betcha you could run somewhere it the low 14s.”
Cup Series points leader Jimmie Johnson qualified 13th. Keselowski, who trails by five points, rolls off seventh, but Dale Earnhardt Jr., 10 points back in points, qualified 32nd.
Scott Riggs was the lone driver failing to qualify on Friday. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. was forced to change an engine during practice and will start at the rear of the field despite qualifying with the 28th fastest time.
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series
Bristol Motor Speedway – Bristol, TN
Food City 500 Qualifying – March 15, 2013
1 18 Kyle Busch 14.813 129.535
2 5 Kasey Kahne 14.875 128.995
3 11 Denny Hamlin 14.879 128.960
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5 27 Paul Menard 14.949 128.356
6 1 Jamie McMurray 14.957 128.288
7 2 Brad Keselowski 14.966 128.211
8 14 Tony Stewart 14.990 128.005
9 56 Martin Truex Jr. 14.997 127.946
10 22 Joey Logano 15.005 127.877
11 24 Jeff Gordon 15.006 127.869
12 20 Matt Kenseth 15.008 127.852
13 48 Jimmie Johnson 15.010 127.835
14 38 David Gilliland 15.015 127.792
15 13 Casey Mears 15.039 127.588
16 31 Jeff Burton 15.048 127.512
17 42 Juan Pablo Montoya 15.053 127.470
18 29 Kevin Harvick 15.055 127.453
19 78 Kurt Busch 15.062 127.393
20 43 Aric Almirola 15.064 127.377
21 99 Carl Edwards 15.066 127.360
22 9 Marcos Ambrose 15.066 127.360
23 15 Clint Bowyer 15.073 127.300
24 16 Greg Biffle 15.078 127.258
25 83 David Reutimann 15.093 127.132
26 30 David Stremme 15.157 126.595
27 95 Scott Speed 15.159 126.578
28 17 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. 15.165 126.528
29 51 AJ Allmendinger 15.178 126.420
30 34 David Ragan 15.180 126.403
31 39 Ryan Newman 15.200 126.237
32 88 Dale Earnhardt Jr. 15.235 125.947
33 7 Dave Blaney 15.247 125.848
34 98 Michael McDowell 15.260 125.740
35 36 JJ Yeley 15.261 125.732
36 19 Mike Bliss 15.264 125.708
37 93 Travis Kvapil Owner Points
38 87 Joe Nemechek Owner Points
39 47 Bobby Labonte Owner Points
40 35 Josh Wise Owner Points
41 10 Danica Patrick Owner Points
42 33 Landon Cassill Owner Points
43 32 Terry Labonte Owner Points
Did Not Qualify: Scott Riggs
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