Kenseth On Pole As JGR Sweeps Charlotte Front Row

Matt Kenseth qualified on the pole for Saturday night’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Photo by Jared C. Tilton/NASCAR via Getty Images

Matt Kenseth led a Joe Gibbs Racing sweep of the front row to win his second straight pole and fourth of the season in Thursday’s qualifying session for Saturday night’s Bank of America 500 at Charlotte Motor Speedway – the opening race in the 12-driver Contender round of the Chase for the Sprint Cup.

Kenseth laid down a single lap of 27.759 second (194.532 mph) in the final round that was enough to beat out his teammate Kyle Busch for the top spot. Busch held on for second to give JGR their fourth sweep of the top two positions this season.

Joey Logano qualified third, followed by Greg Biffle and Denny Hamlin.

Kenseth’s pole-winning effort was the 17th of his career and his second straight at Charlotte, after winning the pole for the Coca-Cola 600 in May.

“It was a heck of a lap and I knew it had a lot of speed,” said Kenseth. “Changed up (turns) one and two a little bit – I just got a little tight in the middle of three and four trying for it. I knew it was pretty fast. It was a lot of fun to drive today. We only did qualifying, we have 500 miles on Saturday, but it was a lot of fun today.”

Kenseth currently leads the Chase standings by virtue of his five victories this season, including a win in the second race of the opening Challenger round which earned him an automatic bid into the second round. Now, he’s hungry for a victory at Charlotte to punch his ticket into the next round and avoid any possible calamity in the final Contender Round race at Talladega.

“We can’t really rest on what we had four of five weeks ago, we have to keep making these things better to try to run with the best guys down the stretch,” said Kenseth. “They’ve been doing that and we obviously have some speed, we just need to get it driving good tomorrow for Saturday.”

Busch’s outside pole is his first front row start since Bristol where he started alongside teammate Denny Hamlin and his fourth at Charlotte, a track that has been his nemesis in recent years with no Cup wins in 23 starts.

Although Busch and his JGR teammate have made their mark in qualifying in the last three weeks, Busch reiterated that just qualifying good is not enough.

“Qualifying is not a statement, the race is more of a statement. You have to have a good race, put it all together,” said Busch. “You have to have fast race cars, good engines and good guys on pit road that give you fast pit stops. Putting it all together is certainly what the 4 (Kevin Harvick) bunch did last week and they proved that they’re obviously a championship contender.

“I’ve been close here before, led a lot of laps and I finished second, finished third I don’t know how many times. I just have to break through for that victory and hoping it can come here on Saturday and that would propel us almost all the way to Homestead. We still have to race Martinsville, Texas and Phoenix, but I’m pretty sure we can get through the next round if we can get through this round.”

Among the other Chase contenders in the top 10 are Kurt Busch in sixth, Carl Edwards in eighth and Ryan Newman is in tenth, followed by defending series champion Kevin Harvick, Dale Earnhardt, Jr. and Brad Keselowski. Martin Truex, Jr. will start 15th while Jeff Gordon will roll off in 22nd.

NASCAR Sprint Cup Series
Charlotte Motor Speedway – Concord, NC
Bank of America 500 – October 8, 2015

Thursday’s Qualifying Results

1. (20) Matt Kenseth, Toyota, 194.532 mph.
2. (18) Kyle Busch, Toyota, 193.154 mph.
3. (22) Joey Logano, Ford, 193.023 mph.
4. (16) Greg Biffle, Ford, 192.947 mph.
5. (11) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 192.912 mph.
6. (41) Kurt Busch, Chevrolet, 192.610 mph.
7. (48) Jimmie Johnson, Chevrolet, 192.507 mph.
8. (19) Carl Edwards, Toyota, 192.438 mph.
9. (43) Aric Almirola, Ford, 192.226 mph.
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11. (4) Kevin Harvick, Chevrolet, 191.415 mph.
12. (88) Dale Earnhardt, Jr., Chevrolet, 190.624 mph.
13. (2) Brad Keselowski, Ford, 191.618 mph.
14. (3) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 191.605 mph.
15. (78) Martin Truex, Jr., Chevrolet, 191.056 mph.
16. (21) Ryan Blaney(i), Ford, 191.056 mph.
17. (47) A.J. Allmendinger, Chevrolet, 190.907 mph.
18. (9) Sam Hornish, Jr., Ford, 190.819 mph.
19. (55) David Ragan, Toyota, 190.483 mph.
20. (5) Kasey Kahne, Chevrolet, 190.436 mph.
21. (13) Casey Mears, Chevrolet, 190.382 mph.
22. (24) Jeff Gordon, Chevrolet, 189.947 mph.
23. (15) Clint Bowyer, Toyota, 189.640 mph.
24. (10) Danica Patrick, Chevrolet, 188.607 mph.
25. (17) Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., Ford, 189.900 mph.
26. (27) Paul Menard, Chevrolet, 189.813 mph.
27. (7) Alex Bowman, Chevrolet, 189.221 mph.
28. (51) Justin Allgaier, Chevrolet, 188.640 mph.
29. (38) David Gilliland, Ford, 188.521 mph.
30. (1) Jamie McMurray, Chevrolet, 188.501 mph.
31. (42) Kyle Larson, Chevrolet, 187.833 mph.
32. (95) Michael McDowell, Ford, 187.337 mph.
33. (6) Trevor Bayne, Ford, 187.246 mph.
34. (40) Landon Cassill(i), Chevrolet, 187.220 mph.
35. (26) J.J. Yeley(i), Toyota, 187.214 mph.
36. (14) Tony Stewart, Chevrolet, 186.754 mph.
37. (34) Brett Moffitt #, Ford, Owner Points
38. (46) Michael Annett, Chevrolet, Owner Points
39. (35) Cole Whitt, Ford, Owner Points
40. (83) Matt DiBenedetto #, Toyota, Owner Points
41. (23) Jeb Burton #, Toyota, Owner Points
42. (98) Reed Sorenson, Ford, Owner Points
43. (33) Alex Kennedy #, Chevrolet, Owner Points