Kahne captures the Kobalt Tools 400 pole

[media-credit name=”David Yeazell” align=”alignright” width=”208″][/media-credit]Kasey Kahne captured the pole for Sunday’s Kobalt Tools 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway with a track record lap of 190.456 MPH (28.353 secs). This was Kahne’s 23rd career cup pole and his first since joining Hendrick Motorsports.

“It was a good lap. We carried a lot of speed to the line in the Farmers Insurance Chevy. I got through (Turns) 1 and 2 really well. When I got to (Turn) 3, I was a little bit tight and just had a little more wheel than what I would have liked coming off of (Turn) 4 and back to the line. So I knew I was a little on the tight side. But I still felt like it was a good run and the Hendrick engine runs so well it pulls you there. That was a good lap. It was faster in practice today. We did a lot of race trim stuff and then we made a couple of runs right at the end.” Kahne said.

Overall, 15 drivers broke Matt Kenseth’s record lap of 188.884 mph set in 2011.

Kyle Busch qualified second. “The M&M’s Camry drove great. Dave(crew chief) and the guys did a nice job so hoping that second place starting spot is good for Sunday and keeps us up front with our track position.” Busch said.

Kevin Harvick third. “Yeah, these guys on this Budweiser Chevy are making me look good on qualifying days.” Harvick said.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. fourth and Clint Bowyer qualified fifth.

“I’m pretty happy with how we ended up. We struggled in qualifying last year and wanted to work on that this year and this is a good result, so hopefully we’re making some gains there.” Earnhardt Jr. said.