BRISTOL, Tenn. — Report by Race Chaser Online Managing Editor Jacob Seelman — Jeff Zelevansky/Getty Images North America photo —
Matt Kenseth committed the equivalent of high-speed robbery during NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Coors Light Pole Qualifying on Friday at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Kenseth rocketed out early in the final round of knockout qualifying and laid down a blistering lap of 14.917 seconds (128.632 mph) to top all comers in his No. 20 Dollar General Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing and claim his 14th career Sprint Cup pole, second at Bristol and first of the 2015 season.
(Brian Lawdermilk/Getty Images North America photo)
“Proud of my Dollar General guys — we’re not particularly great in race trim and in qualifying trim, we had some pretty good speed,” said Kenseth, who won from the pole at Bristol after leading 415 laps in 2005. “Jason [Ratcliff, crew chief] and my guys made really great adjustments for that last [round] and we were able to put it together.”
“I’m glad we’re starting from the pole — we’ve got some work to do to get it ready for Sunday, but now that we’re up front hopefully we can keep it out of trouble.”
The lap ended the hopes of Team Penske’s Joey Logano, who had topped the first two rounds in dominant fashion and was looking for a clean sweep of qualifying for Sunday’s Food City 500 in Support of Steve Byrnes and Stand Up to Cancer (1 p.m. Eastern on FOX).
Logano was loose in turns three and four and clocked in sixth (15.071 / 127.317) on Sunday.
“It’s frustrating when you win the first two rounds and then you don’t really go and make it happen in the third one,” a disappointed Logano said. “Got too loose in the last round, and half the battle is just trying to not wreck while you’re trying to go fast. I feel like I lost a lot in three and four just trying to keep the back end from spinning around. It’s still not that bad — I’m mad at sixth, so that’s at least a good problem to have.”
His Penske teammate Brad Keselowski was 0.022 of a second off of Kenseth’s pole-winning lap and will start from the outside pole with an average speed of 128.442 mph.
Defending race winner Carl Edwards will start third, followed by two-time season winner Kevin Harvick and Denny Hamlin, who rounds out the top five.
Logano, Kurt Busch, Kasey Kahne, Paul Menard and Jamie McMurray complete the first five rows of the grid, with David Ragan and Austin Dillon (12th) the final two cars to advance to the last round of qualifying.
The top eight drivers on Sunday’s grid are all former Bristol winners.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. was the first driver to miss the cut for the final round, slotting the No. 88 DewSHINE Chevrolet SS 13th on the grid for Sunday’s 500-lap event, while teammate Jeff Gordon struggled in the second round and will start 23rd.
Three pleasant surprises headlined the second round of qualifying with single-car or small-buck operations. Landon Cassill took the Mike Hillman-owned No. 40 to a 17th-place qualifying effort, while Michael McDowell (19th) and Matt DiBenedetto (22nd; career-best) each impressed for Leavine Family Racing and BK Racing, respectively.
“I’m really proud of my guys,” DiBenedetto expressed. “I won here when I was 16 — that’ll make any track an instant favorite — but for everything our team has been through, I’m glad to be here and excited for Sunday.”
On the other end of the spectrum, several teams will have a long way to fight in Sunday’s event, including six-time series champion Jimmie Johnson. Johnson, who won the series’ most recent race at the Texas Motor Speedway, fought a massively-loose race car on every one of his qualifying runs and could only muster the 28th fastest lap in the first round.
“It’s been a struggle,” Johnson said after his last run. “I mean in practice we were on one side of [the setup] and in qualifying we were on the other side of it. It’s a frustrating Friday — Bristol can be that for us — but we always race better than we qualify here, so we’ll settle in during the race, and hopefully come away with a good finish.”
“I love this race track, I just wish we could walk through the gates and take it to them like I do at some of my other race tracks. [That shows] there’s still a lot to learn, even after coming here for 16 years, so we’ll just see what happens on Sunday.”
Every major Ford team not named Penske also struggled, with Roush Fenway Racing’s trio of Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (25th), Trevor Bayne (31st) and Greg Biffle (33rd) as well as Richard Petty Motorsports drivers Aric Almirola (30th) and Sam Hornish Jr. (39th) all out in the first round.
Brendan Gaughan and Ron Hornaday were the two cars who failed to qualify for the 43-car field.
RESULTS: NASCAR Sprint Cup Series; Coors Light Pole Qualifying; Bristol Motor Speedway; April 17, 2015
- Matt Kenseth
- Brad Keselowski
- Carl Edwards
- Kevin Harvick
- Denny Hamlin
- Joey Logano
- Kurt Busch
- Kasey Kahne
- Paul Menard
- Jamie McMurray
- David Ragan
- Austin Dillon
- Dale Earnhardt Jr.
- Kyle Larson
- Justin Allgaier
- Martin Truex Jr.
- Landon Cassill
- Ryan Newman
- Michael McDowell
- A.J. Allmendinger
- Tony Stewart
- Matt DiBenedetto
- Jeff Gordon
- Brett Moffitt
- Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
- Danica Patrick
- Casey Mears
- Jimmie Johnson
- J.J. Yeley
- Aric Almirola
- Trevor Bayne
- David Gilliland
- Greg Biffle
- Jeb Burton
- Josh Wise
- Michael Annett
- Clint Bowyer
- Chris Buescher
- Sam Hornish Jr.
- Alex Bowman
- Mike Bliss
- Cole Whitt
- Alex Kennedy
DNQ: Brendan Gaughan, Ron Hornaday
