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Although he's won the Daytona 500 twice Matt Kenseth accomplished something else for the first time.
After 58 career starts at Daytona International Speedway, Kenseth - this year's 500 winner - finally captured his first pole on the 2.5-mile tri-oval with a 192.386 mph lap in a Ford in qualifying for Saturday night's Coke Zero 400 Powered by Coca-Cola.
“I've never won a superspeedway pole,” said Kenseth, who has now qualified for the 2013 Daytona Shootout. “It's great to be on the pole - it puts us in the Shootout for next year. You like to be in all the special races. There's been a couple of years where I missed the Shootout and whenever you're not in (it), you feel like you didn't do your job as good as you should; you feel like you should be in the special races.”
It was Kenseth's eighth Sprint Cup Pole in 454 starts.
In another interesting twist of fate Ryan Newman, the 2008 500 winner, will start second, at 192.353 mph while his boss, Tony Stewart's second place time was disallowed when inspectors found an open cooling hose into the cockpit of his car. Coincidentally that same duct work violation had cost Austin Dillon the Nationwide Series pole earlier in the day.
“We had a couple of engine problems,” Newman noted
“But the Hendrick (who supply their engine) guys have been working really hard on that part of it, making sure we don't have those issues again and we'll keep working forward. I have to thank everyone at Stewart-Haas for doing a great job.Obviously, today we were close.
“This is the closest I've been to a restrictor-plate pole. So, just proud of the team effort.”
Greg Biffle's Ford will start fourth at (192.139) and Jeff Gordon, in a Chevrolet will take the green flag in fifth (192.061).
After 58 career starts at Daytona International Speedway, Kenseth - this year's 500 winner - finally captured his first pole on the 2.5-mile tri-oval with a 192.386 mph lap in a Ford in qualifying for Saturday night's Coke Zero 400 Powered by Coca-Cola.
“I've never won a superspeedway pole,” said Kenseth, who has now qualified for the 2013 Daytona Shootout. “It's great to be on the pole - it puts us in the Shootout for next year. You like to be in all the special races. There's been a couple of years where I missed the Shootout and whenever you're not in (it), you feel like you didn't do your job as good as you should; you feel like you should be in the special races.”
It was Kenseth's eighth Sprint Cup Pole in 454 starts.
In another interesting twist of fate Ryan Newman, the 2008 500 winner, will start second, at 192.353 mph while his boss, Tony Stewart's second place time was disallowed when inspectors found an open cooling hose into the cockpit of his car. Coincidentally that same duct work violation had cost Austin Dillon the Nationwide Series pole earlier in the day.
“We had a couple of engine problems,” Newman noted
“But the Hendrick (who supply their engine) guys have been working really hard on that part of it, making sure we don't have those issues again and we'll keep working forward. I have to thank everyone at Stewart-Haas for doing a great job.Obviously, today we were close.
“This is the closest I've been to a restrictor-plate pole. So, just proud of the team effort.”
Greg Biffle's Ford will start fourth at (192.139) and Jeff Gordon, in a Chevrolet will take the green flag in fifth (192.061).