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16th
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Kyle Busch was almost surprised to break the qualifying record on the way to his first Sprint Cup pole at the .533 mile Bristol Motor Speedway.
“After a couple of years of getting used to wrecking here, it sort of all fell into place,” Busch said. “I've never sat on a pole here at Bristol and qualifying is not everything here. Most of my wins come from about 30th or worse...”
Driving a Toyota; Busch turned a lap in 14.813 seconds eclipsing the record held by Ryan Newman, who had run the first sub-15-second lap in 2003.
Friday's top nine qualifiers beat the 15-second-lap time, with Busch trailed by Kasey Kahne, Denny Hamlin, Brian Vickers, Paul Menard, Jamie McMurray, Brad Keselowski, Tony Stewart and Martin Truex Jr. Joey Logano rounded out the top ten.
One of the reasons for his pole, Busch opined, “the track is getting a little bit of age on it so it's getting a little bit rougher and that's about all that we felt different from what we've had here in the past years."
Kahne, who drives a Chevrolet, went out after Busch's lap and was aware he had a big job ahead. “I knew Kyle (had put down a great lap and a track record. So I knew I had to go pretty hard,” he said.
“I just felt like I may have given up a little bit in (Turns) 1 and 2, which would have made it really close for the pole. But, we it was still really good between (Turns) 3 and 4. The car was balanced really nice. I wish we could have beat Kyle but he put down a great lap.”
Hamlin, Busch's teammate, said “Yeah, it was good. Our car has really had a lot of speed since we got here. We haven't been able to really mess it up too bad with any adjustments. It's really for us been more about getting our car off the race track, so we're pretty happy with what we've got and where we're headed so far this weekend.”
Vickers, who shares his ride with Mark Martin in the Michael Waltrip Racing Toyota while running full-time in the Nationwide Series, was pleased. “It's good to be back in the Sprint Cup Series,” he said.
“The car was good -- it was really good, better than practice. Rodney (Childers, the crew chief) did a great job all weekend. I was trying to get too much out of the car and we ended up at a (14) .90 or .91 -- I think it probably had a mid to low .80 and trying to get a .70 was just too much.”
“After a couple of years of getting used to wrecking here, it sort of all fell into place,” Busch said. “I've never sat on a pole here at Bristol and qualifying is not everything here. Most of my wins come from about 30th or worse...”
Driving a Toyota; Busch turned a lap in 14.813 seconds eclipsing the record held by Ryan Newman, who had run the first sub-15-second lap in 2003.
Friday's top nine qualifiers beat the 15-second-lap time, with Busch trailed by Kasey Kahne, Denny Hamlin, Brian Vickers, Paul Menard, Jamie McMurray, Brad Keselowski, Tony Stewart and Martin Truex Jr. Joey Logano rounded out the top ten.
One of the reasons for his pole, Busch opined, “the track is getting a little bit of age on it so it's getting a little bit rougher and that's about all that we felt different from what we've had here in the past years."
Kahne, who drives a Chevrolet, went out after Busch's lap and was aware he had a big job ahead. “I knew Kyle (had put down a great lap and a track record. So I knew I had to go pretty hard,” he said.
“I just felt like I may have given up a little bit in (Turns) 1 and 2, which would have made it really close for the pole. But, we it was still really good between (Turns) 3 and 4. The car was balanced really nice. I wish we could have beat Kyle but he put down a great lap.”
Hamlin, Busch's teammate, said “Yeah, it was good. Our car has really had a lot of speed since we got here. We haven't been able to really mess it up too bad with any adjustments. It's really for us been more about getting our car off the race track, so we're pretty happy with what we've got and where we're headed so far this weekend.”
Vickers, who shares his ride with Mark Martin in the Michael Waltrip Racing Toyota while running full-time in the Nationwide Series, was pleased. “It's good to be back in the Sprint Cup Series,” he said.
“The car was good -- it was really good, better than practice. Rodney (Childers, the crew chief) did a great job all weekend. I was trying to get too much out of the car and we ended up at a (14) .90 or .91 -- I think it probably had a mid to low .80 and trying to get a .70 was just too much.”