FORT WORTH, Texas – Kurt Busch scored his first Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series pole of the season Friday evening at Texas Motor Speedway when lightning just south of the track brought the qualifying session to an early end.
Busch led a Stewart-Haas sweep of the top three starting spots for the O’Reilly Auto Parts 500, touring the 1.5-mile quad-oval in 27.360 seconds (197.368 mph) with the No. 41 Haas Automation/Monster Energy Ford Fusion.
Only one of the three scheduled knockout rounds was completed due to continued lightning strikes near the track.
NASCAR procedures state that qualifying can be declared complete if at least one round is fully finished, or if officials deem that all drivers had a fair opportunity to complete a qualifying lap in the first round before it was stopped.
In this instance, the full 15 minute clock was exhausted, with 36 of the 37 drivers turning an official lap during the round.
Busch’s effort marks the 23rd Busch Pole Award of his career, his third at Texas and second in a row following his track-record run of 200.915 mph last fall.
“It was a unique situation, with just having the one round,” admitted Busch. “The thought that weather was in the area hadn’t crossed our minds, but yet you have to play all three rounds as smart as you can. We went a little bit aggressive on that first round and it paid off. I think in round two, we would have picked up even more speed and round three would have been where we had to make a big gamble to see if we could still maintain that pace.
“I am glad we had the speed we needed right off the truck. … It is neat to have our Fords at Stewart-Haas hauling the mail like this. When you attack the track and stand on the gas hard, it’s a great feeling to know the car is going to stick. We’ve been on fire recently and I hope it continues into Sunday.”
Defending Texas winner Kevin Harvick will join Busch on the front row, turning a lap of 27.395 seconds (197.116 mph) in the No. 4 Busch Light Ford, with Martinsville winner Clint Bowyer starting off his quest for a second-straight win from third (27.435/196.829) in the No. 14 Mobil 1/Rush Truck Centers Ford.
The three Stewart-Haas drivers finished in that exact same order during the lone practice session earlier in the day.
Ryan Blaney and Denny Hamlin, who was the fastest Toyota driver in qualifying, completed the top five starters. Positions six through 10 were filled by Martin Truex Jr., Joey Logano, Kyle Busch, Jimmie Johnson and Kyle Larson.
Johnson is the all-time wins leader at Texas with seven victories, and he won the most-recent spring race at the track last April.
Notables mired deeper in the field include Alex Bowman (16th), Paul Menard (19th), Chase Elliott (20th), Jamie McMurray (24th) and rookie William Byron (33rd).
Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series teams will return to the track for two practice sessions on Saturday, at 11 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. Eastern.
