FORT WORTH, Tex– On an overcast and cool Friday evening at the Texas Motor Speedway, Austin Dillon wins his third career Coors Light Pole Award and second of the season, ahead of the AAA Texas 500 on Sunday (2 pm ET, NBC, PRN, SiriusXM).
Dillon, the driver of the No.3 Realtree/Bad Boy Chevrolet for Richard Childress Racing, won the pole with a time of 28.081 (192.301 mph). Dillon, who missed out on the third round of the Chase by two feet exiting Talladega, felt the team is still heading in the right direction with only two more weeks remaining.
“We missed the Chase by two feet and we want to prove that we can win a race by the end of this year.” Dillon said. “This is big for us. I think our team is very strong, we’ve just been missing here and there. It’s going to be good to have another year with these guys and I’m looking forward to seeing what we can do next year.”
Joining Dillon on the front row of the grid is Chase contender and 2014 spring winner Joey Logano (28.087/192.260 mph).
Starting third is Kevin Harvick who is looking to rebound after a tough race at Martinsville last Sunday. Starting in the fourth position is Logano’s Penske Racing teammate of Brad Keselowski and rounding out the top five is Michigan winner Kyle Larson.
Other notables include, Matt Kenseth in seventh, Sunoco Rookie of the Year contender Ryan Blaney in eighth.
Both Carl Edwards and Kurt Busch who had dismal finishes at Martinsville Speedway a week ago, find themselves on the outside looking in, but will start ninth and tenth, respectively.
For Denny Hamlin and last weeks winner, Jimmie Johnson, they become the other two Chase drivers who failed to advance to the final round of qualifying and will start 16th and 19th on Sunday.
For spring winner Kyle Busch, his day went from bad to worse. After he made contact with the wall in practice, had more issues in qualifying as a radiator hose was not properly clamped and water leaked out of his No.18 Toyota Camry, forcing the team to the garage in the second round of qualifying. He will start P.24 on Sunday.
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