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 Kyle Busch covered the 1.54-mile distance in 28.925 seconds (191.668
mph) in the money round of knockout qualifying for Sunday's Folds of
Honor QuikTrip 500 (1 p.m. ET on FOX), beating his older brother by
.013 seconds.
But the reigning NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion's No. 18 Joe
Gibbs Racing Toyota failed post-qualifying inspection, and his time
was disallowed. That gave Kurt Busch his first Coors Light Pole
Award at Atlanta in the first event contested this year with the
lower-downforce competition package that will be in place at all
open-motor race tracks.
Kyle Busch must take the green flag from the rear of the field.
Kurt Busch was remarkably consistent in each of the three rounds,
running 191.635 mph in his No. 41 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet in
both the first and second sessions and 191.582 mph in the third.
"It was a good, consistent car and I hope that translates into race
speed as well," Kurt Busch said. "But thanks to (crew chief) Tony
Gibson and everybody at Stewart-Haas.
"It's a matter of preparing the best car during the offseason to
come to these 1.5-mile tracks and seeing what you've got. It's just
great to feel this right away with the speed and the energy from the
car."
Kurt Busch also lauded NASCAR for the inspection process that
ultimately put him on the pole.
"Overall, with the way the developments came up from tech
inspection, this shows the amount of enforcement that NASCAR is
ready to apply to their technical procedures on what a car has to do
to comply to all specs," he said.
The disqualification to Kyle Busch -- because his car failed the
rear toe measurement on NASCAR's laser platform -- put Jamie
McMurray's No. 1 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet (190.130 mph) on the
outside of the front row for the start of Sunday's race.
"I'm really proud of everyone at the entire shop," McMurray said.
"When you come to a 1.5-mile track you're really depending on your
car. And our 1.5-mile program last year wasn't where it needed to
be. They put a lot of effort into it.
"Like I said during Speedweeks and all the offseason, this is where
you really need to be good. The No. 42 car (teammate Kyle Larson)
was fast in practice. He got really loose, it looked like, in his
qualifying laps. But then, we were really good as well. So I'm proud
of the effort by everybody on the McDonald's Chevrolet. We're off to
a good start at the 1.5-mile tracks, which is critical."
Trevor Bayne (189.987 mph) qualified third, beating by 15 positions
his previous best starting spot at an open-motor race track (18th
last year at Darlington).
"This season, we're really looking forward to this low-downforce
package, as we've talked about over the off-season," Bayne said. "We
felt like our best races were at the low downforce tracks, Kentucky
and Darlington (last year's two trial runs), so everybody that's
wondering what's going on at Roush Fenway Racing -- a lot of hard
work and a lot of attention to detail.
"We had a meeting last week talking about execution. Everybody's
intentions are right. Everybody wants to go fast. Everybody wants to
win races, but now we've got to execute and make sure we make these
fast Fords last."
Ryan Newman was fourth fastest, followed by Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and
Carl Edwards. Denny Hamlin, last Sunday's Daytona 500 winner, will
start 12th.
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Qualifying - Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500
Atlanta Motor Speedway
Hampton, Georgia
Friday, February 26, 2016
1. (41) Kurt Busch, Chevrolet, 191.582 mph.
[to top of second column] |
2. (1) Jamie McMurray, Chevrolet, 190.130 mph.
3. (6) Trevor Bayne, Ford, 189.987 mph.
4. (31) Ryan Newman, Chevrolet, 189.961 mph.
5. (17) Ricky Stenhouse Jr, Ford, 189.863 mph.
6. (4) Kevin Harvick, Chevrolet, 189.779 mph.
7. (19) Carl Edwards, Toyota, 189.766 mph.
8. (3) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 189.681 mph.
9. (78) Martin Truex Jr, Toyota, 189.364 mph.
10. (44) Brian Scott #, Ford, 188.591 mph.
11. (5) Kasey Kahne, Chevrolet, 187.196 mph.
12. (11) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 190.385 mph.
13. (20) Matt Kenseth, Toyota, 190.260 mph.
14. (16) Greg Biffle, Ford, 190.182 mph.
15. (13) Casey Mears, Chevrolet, 190.150 mph.
16. (88) Dale Earnhardt Jr, Chevrolet, 189.818 mph.
17. (2) Brad Keselowski, Ford, 189.144 mph.
18. (14) Ty Dillon(i), Chevrolet, 189.138 mph.
19. (48) Jimmie Johnson, Chevrolet, 188.790 mph.
20. (42) Kyle Larson, Chevrolet, 188.719 mph.
21. (27) Paul Menard, Chevrolet, 188.713 mph.
22. (47) AJ Allmendinger, Chevrolet, 188.636 mph.
23. (21) Ryan Blaney #, Ford, 187.449 mph.
24. (24) Chase Elliott #, Chevrolet, 189.390 mph.
25. (10) Danica Patrick, Chevrolet, 189.079 mph.
26. (22) Joey Logano, Ford, 189.041 mph.
27. (43) Aric Almirola, Ford, 188.565 mph.
28. (15) Clint Bowyer, Chevrolet, 188.028 mph.
29. (38) Landon Cassill, Ford, 187.837 mph.
30. (7) Regan Smith, Chevrolet, 187.392 mph.
31. (34) Chris Buescher #, Ford, 187.120 mph.
32. (95) Michael McDowell, Chevrolet, 185.903 mph.
33. (23) David Ragan, Toyota, 185.778 mph.
34. (46) Michael Annett, Chevrolet, 185.617 mph.
35. (83) Matt DiBenedetto, Toyota, 185.499 mph.
36. (98) Cole Whitt, Chevrolet, 184.039 mph.
37. (30) Josh Wise, Chevrolet, 183.820 mph.
38. (32) Jeffrey Earnhardt #, Ford, 180.769 mph.
39. (18) Kyle Busch, Toyota, 0.000 mph.
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