Kyle Busch wins Charlotte pole, Kurt Busch sets new track record

Concord, NC (SportsNetwork.com) - The Busch brothers had quite a night in Thursday's Sprint Cup Series qualifying at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Kyle Busch won the pole for Saturday night's Bank of America 500, while his elder brother, Kurt, set a new track qualifying record at Charlotte with his lap at 198.771 mph during the second of three rounds in knockout qualifying. His speed was the fastest qualifying lap ever at a 1.5-mile track in NASCAR's premier series.

The previous fastest speed on a mile and a half was set by Kevin Harvick at Texas in April (198.282 mph).

During the final round of qualifying, Kyle Busch turned a lap at 197.390 mph to claim his third pole of the season and the 16th of his Sprint Cup career. It was also his second pole in 22 starts at Charlotte. Busch, the driver of the No. 18 Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing, is currently second in the Chase standings, just six points behind Joey Logano, who won last Sunday's race at Kansas.

"It seemed like the guy that was the most consistent was able to win the pole tonight," Kyle Busch said. "We tested here a few weeks ago, and I was really happy with the test. We unloaded today and not so happy about it. It's just Charlotte. It will be different again (Friday in practice), you can certainly chalk that up for sure. We'll see how this weekend goes, and hopefully we can come out of here with a solid weekend and out ourselves in the right spot for continuing on in our Chase here."

Busch has yet to win a Cup race at Charlotte. His best finish here is second, which occurred twice, most recently in the fall of 2011.

Jeff Gordon will start alongside Busch on the front row after qualifying at 197.217 mph.

"Oh my gosh, it's so fast, so much grip and so much commitment," Gordon said of the qualifying speeds at Charlotte. "We won't be quite going this fast on Saturday night."

Denny Hamlin, who is Busch's teammate at JGR, qualified third at 197.087 mph.

"To know that we've got a good qualifying spot and we will in turn have a good pit selection tells me that we're setting ourselves up for a good night on Saturday," Hamlin said.

Tony Stewart placed fourth, followed by Ryan Newman, Paul Menard and Harvick, who has won a pole eight times this season, including the previous two races.

Finishing eighth through 12th in the third round of qualifying were: Brian Vickers, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Carl Edwards, Kurt Busch and Greg Biffle.

"One cool thing is with the reduction of horsepower and downforce next year, the track record should stand for a while," Kurt Busch said. "It was a really cool feeling to go that fast. The car had a lot of speed in it, but it was just too tight in the final round."

Gordon, Hamlin, Newman, Harvick, Earnhardt and Edwards are in the current 12- driver Chase field. Charlotte is the second of three races in the second round of the playoffs, known as the Contender Round.

The other Chase drivers and their starting positions include: Logano (13th), Brad Keselowski (17th), Kasey Kahne (19th), Jimmie Johnson (21st) and Matt Kenseth (22nd).

Johnson, the six-time and defending series champion, is presently 12th in Chase points. He finished 40th at Kansas after being involved in an accident with Biffle in the early going. Johnson also struggled in qualifying at Charlotte, placing 32nd.

"Just didn't have the speed there on that final run," Johnson said. "It's disappointing."

Johnson won a Cup race at Charlotte for a record seventh time in May.

Keselowski won last year's Chase event at Charlotte. He is 10th in points following his 36th-place run at Kansas.

"We've been off a little bit in qualifying trim since we've been here (at Charlotte), but I thought our race trim was really good in practice, and that's the most important thing, so we'll keep working," Keselowski said.

Kahne, currently ninth in points, posted the fastest lap during the first qualifying round at 197.976 mph. The top-21 finishers in the opening round surpassed the previous track qualifying record of 195.624 mph, set by Hamlin in May 2013.

It's the 21st time this season that a new track qualifying record has been set in the series.

Trevor Bayne was the only driver who failed to qualify for the 500-mile race at Charlotte. Bayne, a Nationwide Series regular, was driving a fourth entry for Roush Fenway Racing, the No. 6. It's the same car number that he will drive full-time in Sprint Cup next season.