Kyle Busch will lead the field to the green flag in tomorrow’s Sprint Cup Series race at the Brickyard.
The driver of the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota scored the pole for the Brickyard 400 after posting a time of 48.745 and a speed of 184.634 mph. It’s his 19th pole in 410 Sprint Cup Series starts, first at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, second of 2016 and 14th top-10 start of the season.
“I don’t know if there’s necessarily a key,” Busch said when asked the key to his pole lap. “I just think that everything kind of worked together. There’s a lot of different variables that are happening as you go from run to run and round to round and changing what you do as a driver a little bit, but also changing the car a little bit and making adjustments to keep up with the race track.”
“It means a lot,” he added. “It’s definitely pretty special to be running the way that we’re running and to have the success that we’ve had here the last couple of years at Indy and I’d love nothing more than to try to win here again.”
Carl Edwards will start second in his No. 19 JGR Toyota after posting a time of 48.768 and a speed of 184.567 mph.
“I was happy with my lap and I just – I was surprised Kyle got me,” Edwards said. “That was a good lap for him – I mean, that was a good lap that he ran because I felt like my lap was pretty good – but, yeah, it’s frustrating right now to be second because it’s so close and the pole position is obviously huge here. But by tomorrow, the race gets started and I think I’ll be pretty happy with that starting spot, so just good job by all my guys.”
Tony Stewart will start third in his No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet after posting a time of 48.826 and a speed of 184.328 mph.
“I think it’s a big deal here,” Stewart said of starting third. “It always has been. It seems like the more downforce they take off these cars the easier it is to race around each other. That is what you need, but it always helps when you can start up front. When you can get up there and really get working on your car in cleaner air and plan for the end of the race that is really an advantage.”
Denny Hamlin will start fourth in his No. 11 JGR Toyota after posting a time of 48.892 and a speed of 184.079 mph.
“It was pretty good,” Hamlin said of his qualifying effort. “We got a little bit better each run as far as position is concerned, so I feel like we’re pretty close. I thought in race trim our Camry was really exceptionally good especially over the long run, so pretty optimistic about tomorrow.”
Brad Keselowski, who will start fifth in his No. 2 Team Penske Ford after posting a time of 49.022 and a speed of 183.591 mph, said starting fifth “on a hot day like today isn’t too shabby, but of course we want the pole and we want to win the race. That’s the most important part is winning the race, so we can win the race from fifth.”
Ryan Newman will start sixth in his No. 31 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet. Kevin Harvick will start seventh in his No. 4 SHR Chevrolet. Martin Truex Jr. will start eighth in his No. 78 Furniture Row Racing Toyota. Jamie McMurray will start ninth in his No. 1 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet. Kyle Larson will round out the top-10 in his No. 42 CGR Chevrolet.
Kurt Busch will start 11th in his No. 41 SHR Chevrolet. Austin Dillon will round out the 12 drivers that made the final round of qualifying in his No. 3 RCR Chevrolet.
Jeff Gordon, subbing for the injured Dale Earnhardt Jr., will start 21st.
With 41 cars entered, Josh Wise was the lone driver who failed to qualify.
Twenty-one Chevrolet’s, 11 Ford’s and eight Toyota’s will comprise the 40-car field.
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