Kyle Busch, who came oh-so-close to opening Ford Championship Weekend with a victory Friday night, won the pole Saturday for Saturday’s Ford EcoBoost 300 Nationwide Series race at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
Busch ran 167.984 miles per hour.
Following Busch in the top five were championship contenders Elliott Sadler (second), Austin Dillon (third) and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (fourth). Joey Logano was fifth.
Stenhouse enters today’s race with a 20-point lead over Sadler and a 25-point lead over Dillon. All other drivers have been eliminated from championship competition.
Stenhouse won the title last year.
Busch was on target to win Friday night’s Camping World Truck Series race but was edged at the finish by Cale Gale as their trucks banged together crossing the line. Busch was frustrated and had little to say after the race other than, “I got drove into the fence.” He is likely to be particularly charged up for this afternoon’s race.
Qualifying in the second five were Justin Allgaier, Brian Scott, Cole Whitt, Blake Koch and Regan Smith.
Stenhouse needs a finish of only 16th to win the championship regardless of how the other title contenders finish.
Mike Hembree is NASCAR Editor for SPEED.com and has been covering motorsports for 30 years. He is a six-time winner of the National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year Award.
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