Kasey Kahne Scores First Career Pole With Hendrick Motorsports

[media-credit name=”Credit: Tom Pennington/Getty Images” align=”alignright” width=”225″][/media-credit]Kasey Kahne scored the pole today during qualifying for the Kobalt Tools 400 earlier today.

Kahne was one of fifteen other drivers to break the track record as well. Kahne is looking for a boost to his 2012 season. Kahne suffered accidents in both the season-opening Daytona 500 and the Subway Fresh Fit 500 last weekend in Phoenix. Kahne got caught up in one of many big wrecks at Daytona and wrecked on his own at Phoenix early in the race after getting loose off Turn 4. This is Kahne’s third career pole here at Las Vegas.

Kahne ran his first race here in 2004 where he started from the pole. Kahne led 43 laps and finished second to eventual winner Matt Kenseth. He last won the pole in 2007, but suffered a crash late in the race when the 38 car of then driver David Gilliland sucked him around on the outside, putting the then #9 car in the wall. He has one other Top 5 finish at the track and that happened in 2006 when he finished in fifth. How will Kahne do on Sunday?

Hometown favorite Kyle Busch (sort of) will start on the outside of the front row. The reason why I put “sort of” is that I remember last year when his motor exploded, I heard very loud cheers. I felt kinda bad for Kyle that day. He has one victory here which he got in 2009.

Kevin Harvick qualified his #29 Budweiser Chevrolet in third. I’m seeing a new Harvick this year. He is qualifying a lot better here early in the season and he’s running up front. Harvick has never won here at Vegas, but came close in 2004 before running out of fuel, and finished second to Jimmie Johnson in 2010.

Rounding out the rest of the Top 10 included: Earnhardt Jr., Bowyer, Johnson, Stewart, Logano, Biffle, and Martin Truex Jr.

Is it just me or is Joey Logano on fire? Logano has a new crew chief this year in Jason Radcliff, who spent a long period of time serving as the crew chief for Kyle Busch during his Nationwide Series runs. Logano is running better than ever! I see Logano finally making the Chase this season. It is now his time after three seasons under Greg Zipadelli. Zipadelli now is Competition Director at Stewart-Haas Racing.

Defending winner of this race, Carl Edwards, qualified his #99 in the 21st position as his Daytona 500 winning teammate, Matt Kenseth, qualified his #17 Best Buy Ford in 11th.

Edwards is my pick to win this race, but you never know. My dark horse pick for this weekend is going to be Joey Logano. He has really showed me that he is ready to be a threat for the title.

What do you guys think? Follow me on Twitter. http://www.twitter.com/SirRyanTheOHara or email me rosharppromotions@gmail.com. Enjoy the race!

Starting Lineup
Kobalt Tools 400, Las Vegas Motor Speedway
http://www.speedwaymedia.com/Cup/qual.php?race=3
===========================================
Pos. No. Driver Make Speed Time
===========================================
1 5 Kasey Kahne Chevrolet 190.456 28.353
2 18 Kyle Busch Toyota 190.04 28.415
3 29 Kevin Harvick Chevrolet 190.014 28.419
4 88 Dale Earnhardt Jr. Chevrolet 189.873 28.44
5 15 Clint Bowyer Toyota 189.807 28.45
6 48 Jimmie Johnson Chevrolet 189.773 28.455
7 14 Tony Stewart Chevrolet 189.667 28.471
8 20 Joey Logano Toyota 189.62 28.478
9 16 Greg Biffle Ford 189.5 28.496
10 56 Martin Truex Jr. Toyota 189.421 28.508
11 17 Matt Kenseth Ford 189.208 28.54
12 51 Kurt Busch Chevrolet 189.148 28.549
13 55 Mark Martin Toyota 188.97 28.576
14 22 A.J. Allmendinger Dodge 188.937 28.581
15 9 Marcos Ambrose Ford 188.91 28.585
16 24 Jeff Gordon Chevrolet 188.758 28.608
17 11 Denny Hamlin Toyota 188.712 28.615
18 39 Ryan Newman Chevrolet 188.436 28.657
19 1 Jamie McMurray Chevrolet 188.16 28.699
20 2 Brad Keselowski Dodge 188.134 28.703
21 99 Carl Edwards Ford 188.088 28.71
22 31 Jeff Burton Chevrolet 187.754 28.761
23 33 Brendan Gaughan Chevrolet 187.669 28.774
24 47 Bobby Labonte Toyota 187.663 28.775
25 21 Trevor Bayne Ford 187.363 28.821
26 27 Paul Menard Chevrolet 187.305 28.83
27 43 Aric Almirola Ford 186.987 28.879
28 78 Regan Smith Chevrolet 186.987 28.879
29 42 Juan Montoya Chevrolet 186.78 28.911
30 83 Landon Cassill Toyota 185.65 29.087
31 10 David Reutimann Chevrolet 185.644 29.088
32 13 Casey Mears Ford 185.274 29.146
33 26 Josh Wise* Ford 184.837 29.215
34 38 David Gilliland Ford 184.685 29.239
35 34 David Ragan Ford 184.388 29.286
36 249 J.J. Yeley Toyota 184.37 29.289
37 93 Travis Kvapil Toyota 184.175 29.32
38 36 Dave Blaney Chevrolet 183.949 29.356
39 98 Michael McDowell Ford 183.861 29.37
40 87 Joe Nemechek Toyota 183.542 29.421
41 32 Ken Schrader Ford 183.306 29.459
42 37 Timmy Hill* Ford 182.877 29.528
43 30 David Stremme Toyota 182.704 29.556

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of SpeedwayMedia.com

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