Kyle Busch Wins Pole, Kurt Busch Sets Track Record in Charlotte Qualifying

Kyle Busch earned the pole position on Bojangles’ Pole Night with a lap of 197.390 mph in the final session of knockout qualifying on Thursday at Charlotte Motor Speedway. But it was his brother Kurt Busch who walked away with the new track record after posting a hot lap of 198.976 mph in the second qualifying session – the fastest NASCAR Sprint Cup qualifying lap recorded on a 1.5-mile superspeedway. Both Busch brothers, along with 19 other drivers, bested the previous track record of 195.624 mph set by Denny Hamlin in 2013.

Starting Lineup

“In qualifying you are just asking for hundredths or thousandths of time,” Busch said. “You have to make sure you are doing everything right behind the wheel. Tonight, we did everything right.”

Jeff Gordon did almost everything right but came up short in his pole bid. He will start outside the front row for Saturday’s Bank of America 500 after a lap of 197.217 mph.

“It was so fast, so much commitment,” Gordon said. “I just got into turn three too hard, got too aggressive, and was getting out of it too much. Looking back on it, we felt like we had a car that could have been on the pole tonight. It was a little bit of a letdown that we didn’t get it.”

KYLE BUSCH (POLE WINNER, NO. 18 DOUBLEMINT TOYOTA) – “It seems whoever was the most consistent was going to get the pole. (Crew chief) Dave (Rogers) made some really good adjustments. We tested here and were happy about it and unloaded today and weren’t so happy. We hit one piece of the puzzle each week and we are working on it. It’s Charlotte, we need grip and to be faster. It felt pretty good to come out here at this time of day, set fast time, fast lap in qualifying there that last session. We got ourselves in a good spot to where we can start out front, get in clean air … and to get the first pit selection. That’s always a positive thing, especially here with green flag pit stops, but also under the cautions getting off of pit road. We are just trying to fine tune and in qualifying you are just asking for hundredths or thousandths of time. You have to make sure you are doing everything right behind the wheel. Tonight, we did everything right.”

JEFF GORDON (SECOND PLACE, NO. 24 DRIVE TO END HUNGER CHEVROLET) – “It was so fast, so much commitment. I just got into turn three too hard, got too aggressive, and was getting out of it too much. It was a great effort. To practice during the day and qualify at night is tough. Looking back on it, we felt like we had a car that could have been on the pole tonight. It was a little bit of a letdown that we didn’t get it. I did feel like the car was fast enough to do it. During the second segment I just overdrove it going into three. I just got off of it too much in the third segment.”

DENNY HAMLIN (THIRD PLACE, NO.11 FEDEX GROUND TOYOTA) – “It was a good qualifying run. Obviously, it was a good session, so we will just keep working on the car. I’m pretty excited about that lap. We’ll keep working. I felt like we were better in race trim than qualifying. We will try to put ourselves in a good position for the race Saturday night. We are getting better. We are getting closer and closer to the feel. We did test here and it was a good test. We have always raced well on these types of tracks. To know that we have a good qualifying spot, and in turn a good pit selection, we are setting ourselves up for a good night on Saturday.”