BRISTOL, Tenn. — Kyle Busch has been perfect so far at Bristol Motor Speedway, and that streak continued during an abbreviated Coors Light Pole Qualifying session for the NASCAR XFINITY Series on Friday afternoon.
After winning the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at Bristol from the pole Wednesday night, Busch continued his quest for a second-career tripleheader sweep by winning his 63rd-career XFINITY pole ahead of the Food City 300 (7:30 p.m. ET, NBCSN, PRN, SiriusXM).
After a rain shower moved through the Bristol area between the conclusion of Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series final practice and the scheduled start of XFINITY qualifying, action was reduced from three knockout rounds to just one 20-minute session to determine the grid for Friday night’s race.
The change did nothing to hinder Busch, who clicked off a lap of 15.090 seconds (127.157 mph) around the half-mile concrete high banks to put his No. 18 NOS Energy Drink Toyota up front for the green flag.
“Our performance was just a matter of waiting a little bit to see what the track had in it, and then trying to go get it,” said Busch. “We were able to bust off a lap there and I’m pretty pumped about that. We were pretty quick yesterday and have a good opportunity to have a good showing tonight.”
“Starting up front will certainly help things for us. We were a little off on balance on our (qualifying) run, so we’ll just have to make a few adjustments to make it better and we don’t have to work on it as much during the race, but we’re happy and looking forward to tonight.”
Busch’s pole was also his sixth of the season and fifth at Bristol.
One of Busch’s long-time Cup rivals, Joey Logano, will join him on the front row in the No. 22 Discount Tire Ford for Team Penske. Logano’s time of 15.252 seconds (125.806 mph) was more than a tenth and a half off Busch’s mark.
Brennan Poole’s No. 48 DC Solar Chevrolet was third-fastest (15.279/125.584) and gave all three manufacturers representation among the top three grid positions in qualifying.
Two more NASCAR XFINITY Series championship contenders — Justin Allgaier and rookie Cole Custer — were fourth and fifth, respectively.
Part-timer Tyler Reddick was sixth, with reigning series champion Daniel Suarez, points leader Elliott Sadler, Brandon Jones and Brendan Gaughan completed the top 10.
Notables mired outside the first five rows included both Austin and Ty Dillon (11th and 12th), Matt Tifft (15th), Daniel Hemric (16th), Dale Earnhardt Jr. (17th), three-time winner William Byron (19th) and Michael Annett (23rd).
With 42 cars on-hand at Bristol, Morgan Shepherd and Reed Sorenson failed to qualify for the 40-car starting field.
Full qualifying results can be viewed on the next page…
