Brad Keselowski won the Coors Light Pole Award for the Quaker State 400 at Kentucky Speedway on Friday with a speed of 188.791 mph. Keselowski broke the track qualifying record with a lap time of 28.603 seconds. He bested second place qualifier and fellow Team Penske driver Joey Logano’s time by two tenths of a second.
Jeff Gordon captured the third spot with a speed of 186.832 mph, followed by Denny Hamlin (186.374) in fourth and Kevin Harvick (186.104) in fifth.
It is Keselowski’s first pole at Kentucky Speedway, and his third pole of the season.
“I’m just thankful it didn’t rain,” Keselowski said after winning the pole. “We’re glad we got the run in.”
Keselowski took first and second, respectively, in the two practice sessions leading up to qualifying.
“The Miller Lite Ford Fusion has just been really good this weekend.,” Keselowski said. “Paul [Wolfe] did a great job with the adjustments. Just really proud of this effort.”
While several cars recorded record-breaking speeds, Friday’s qualifying session was a bit slow to get going.
For the first five minutes of Round One everyone except David Stremme waited on pit road for a cloud to move overhead and cool the racing surface. Once shade fell over the 1.5 mile track, the rest of the field took to the track and their collective strategy was reflected in lap times. In the first round, all of the Top-24 drivers who advanced to Round Two broke the old track qualifying record.
Logano took Round One with a 29.049 second lap, followed by Danica Patrick at 29.070 seconds and Jeff Gordon at 29.077 seconds.
Missing from the second round was Jimmie Johnson, who qualified 25th. It is Johnson’s third time this season not to advance out of round one.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. also experienced issues and missed the second round, qualifying 29th.
“The car was way too rough, way too much movement,” Earnhardt Jr. said. “Hard to control it that way.”
Asked if it was the car he was fighting or the track itself, Jr. replied, “The car bounces because of the track. It doesn’t take a scientist to figure that out.”
Logano grabbed the top spot in Round Two with a lap time of 28.783 seconds. Keselowski and Bowyer took second and third, respectively.
Last year’s race winner Matt Kenseth missed the final cut after being bumped from the Top-12 near the end of Round Two.
With a half minute left in the round, Stewart grabbed the 12th spot, moving Kenseth to 13th. A few seconds later, Paul Menard moved into 11th, pushing Kenseth back to 14th. Kenseth raced to the line to try another lap but time expired before he could begin an attempt, sealing his starting position at 14th.
In Round Three, Logano recorded the fastest lap again but was overtaken by Keselowski near the end of the session. In the closing seconds, Logano returned to the track to try another lap. With one second remaining, Logano crossed the stripe to make a final attempt at a pole but was unable to recapture the top spot.
“It says a lot about Team Penske. We knew coming here to Kentucky, a bumpy racetrack, this is their wheelhouse,” Logano said. “But it’s frustrating at the same time, because we won the first two segments.”
“Brad had a lot of speed in practice and we kind of wondered where it went the first couple runs in qualifying. He figured it out again, obviously. Two tenths [of a second] is a lot,” Logano said.
Rookie Kyle Larson qualified sixth after taking the top spot in the first practice and third in the second practice.
The Quaker State 400 is scheduled to begin at 7:30 p.m. ET on Saturday. It will air on TNT.
