Kyle Busch poses with the Busch Pole Award after qualifying on the pole for Sunday’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Photo by Sarah Crabill/Getty Images
Kyle Busch will make his bid for his first point-paying Charlotte Motor Speedway Cup Series victory from the front row on Sunday after winning the Busch Pole Award in Thursday’s knockout qualifying session for Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600.
Busch topped the final two rounds of qualifying and raced to his third pole of the season and 30th of his career with a lap of 191.035 mph, beating out Joey Logano and Denny Hamlin.
Busch has had a busy schedule at Charlotte over the last two weeks – running the All Star Race and the Camping World Truck Series race last weekend and doing double duty this weekend running the 600 and the Alsco 300 NASCAR Xfinity Series race on Saturday.
“The M&M’s Camry was fast and it felt pretty good.,” said Busch. “The guys did an amazing job in practice, we weren’t very good in practice and Adam (Stevens, crew chief) and the boys went to work.
“Fortunately today I got extra track time so I have my Xfinity guys to thank for a little bit of that today. It’s all good because it’s pure talent all the way around – all these guys. Just feels good. This is a race that you always enjoy coming to at Charlotte. I haven’t won here in a points-paying event here I guess so it would certainly be nice to get that done here this weekend with the 600.”
Busch has one prior pole in this event back in 2008 and has won last year’s All Star Race, but has never won here in a regular-points paying Cup Series race in 28 starts, tallying three runner-up finishes, including last year’s Coca-Cola 600.
“It’s important to me, but I’m not sure it’s important in the grand scheme of things,” said Busch of picking up his first Charlotte win. “It’s certainly important to me and I would love to get that knocked out of the way and to be finished with it until another new track comes up on the circuit and certainly it’s been a trying time here over the course of my career and to have it come to fruition in a points race.
“The last I checked I have a trophy at home that says, ‘winner at Charlotte Motor Speedway,’ so I’ll take that to my grave with me if I do never get a points win here. That will be my saving grace I guess.”
Kyle Busch was second fastest in the opening round behind Jamie McMurray but quickly shot to the top of the speed chart in the second round with his fastest lap of the day, clocking at 191.591 mph to top Hamlin, Logano, Ryan Blaney and Ryan Newman.
In the third and final round, Kyle Busch was the first to take the track ran a blistering 28.149-second lap to claim the top spot all for himself, then sat and watched as the remaining 11 qualifiers tried to top him.
No one came close.
Logano was nearly a tenth of a second slower at 28.240 seconds (191.218 mph), while Hamlin took third with a 28.265 seconds (191.049 mph). Erik Jones (28.288, 190.894 mph) was fourth to give Joe Gibbs Racing three of the top four spots. Brad Keselowski ran 28.338 (190.557) to take the fifth spot.
Logano’s second-place qualifying effort was his best so far this season. He has one Charlotte Cup Series victory under his belt – in the fall race back in 2015 – but has never won the Coca-Cola 600.
“It’s not the pole. We were a solid tenth off, but we improved every round in getting our car faster,” said Logano. “I think it’s the best we’ve qualified all year, so that’s a good sign for us. Hopefully, when we come back here on Saturday we’re able to adjust on our car a little bit and get it to where we can be good on the bottom, be good on the top and as the track changes like we just saw hopefully we’re good on both of those and that’s what we’ll work on and hopefully at the end of the day we’re winning the Coca-Cola 600.”
Kevin Harvick, who took home a check for a million dollars last Saturday with a win in the All Star Race, couldn’t buy himself a shot at qualifying on Thursday after his No. 4 Ford Fusion failed pre-qualifying technical inspection three times and was not able to make a qualifying attempt, sending his to the rear of the field for the 600. His team will be penalized 30 minutes of practice time and his car chief, Robert Smith, has been ejected from the weekend’s event.
J.J. Yeley’s fledgling team also failed to make it through tech, and will start dead last in the 40-car field for the start of Sunday’s race.
Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series
Charlotte Motor Speedway – Concord, NC
Coca-Cola 600 – May 24, 2018
Thursday’s Qualifying Results
1. (18) Kyle Busch, Toyota, 191.836 mph.
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3. (11) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 191.049 mph.
4. (20) Erik Jones, Toyota, 190.894 mph.
5. (2) Brad Keselowski, Ford, 190.557 mph.
6. (31) Ryan Newman, Chevrolet, 190.201 mph.
7. (1) Jamie McMurray, Chevrolet, 189.940 mph.
8. (12) Ryan Blaney, Ford, 189.893 mph.
9. (10) Aric Almirola, Ford, 189.707 mph.
10. (19) Daniel Suarez, Toyota, 189.707 mph.
11. (42) Kyle Larson, Chevrolet, 188.943 mph.
12. (3) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 188.075 mph.
13. (17) Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., Ford, 188.844 mph.
14. (21) Paul Menard, Ford, 188.805 mph.
15. (78) Martin Truex, Jr., Toyota, 188.679 mph.
16. (41) Kurt Busch, Ford, 188.363 mph.
17. (6) Matt Kenseth, Ford, 187.983 mph.
18. (37) Chris Buescher, Chevrolet, 187.905 mph.
19. (38) David Ragan, Ford, 187.526 mph.
20. (13) Ty Dillon, Chevrolet, 187.402 mph.
21. (24) William Byron #, Chevrolet, 187.272 mph.
22. (9) Chase Elliott, Chevrolet, 187.110 mph.
23. (48) Jimmie Johnson, Chevrolet, 186.625 mph.
24. (43) Darrell Wallace, Jr. #, Chevrolet, 185.816 mph.
25. (15) Ross Chastain(i), Chevrolet, 187.624 mph.
26. (95) Kasey Kahne, Chevrolet, 187.585 mph.
27. (88) Alex Bowman, Chevrolet, 187.493 mph.
28. (14) Clint Bowyer, Ford, 187.279 mph.
29. (34) Michael McDowell, Ford, 186.890 mph.
30. (47) A.J. Allmendinger, Chevrolet, 186.716 mph.
31. (32) Matt DiBenedetto, Ford, 186.047 mph.
32. (96) Parker Kligerman(i), Toyota, 185.103 mph.
33. (72) Corey LaJoie, Chevrolet, 183.150 mph.
34. (23) Gray Gaulding, Toyota, 183.138 mph.
35. (00) Landon Cassill, Chevrolet, 182.970 mph.
36. (66) Timmy Hill(i), Toyota, 180.222 mph.
37. (55) Jeffrey Earnhardt, Chevrolet, 178.974 mph.
38. (51) B.J. McLeod(i), Chevrolet, 177.731 mph.
39. (4) Kevin Harvick, Ford, 0.000 mph.
40. (7) JJ Yeley(i), Chevrolet, 0.000 mph.
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