Kyle, who was short of 2 places during last week’s Auto Club 500 to complete a historical NASCAR sweep, set the fastest time of 29.033 seconds on Friday. In securing his 5th pole of career, Busch also managed to break the Las Vegas Motor Speedway qualifying speed record (185.995 mph) set by Kasey Kahne two years ago.
However, the Joe Gibbs Racing driver will not start the race side-by-side to his older brother because of the engine change during the Friday practice session. According to the NASCAR rules, he’ll now have to drop to the rear of the field, allowing 3rd qualifier Jimmie Johnson to advance to the front row of the Las Vegas race.
“It's cool that we're both up there, qualifying on the front row, but unfortunately for myself, I won't be in the cool photo at the drop of the green flag, next to my brother. I'll have to drop to the back of the field for the engine change,”said Busch after setting the fastest lap on Friday.
“We didn't get any [practice] laps in qualifying trim, so we just went out there and sailed a lap as fast as I thought I needed to go. Fortunately, it was fast enough. It would have been great to go out and see who would have led that first lap, but you can't get caught up in all that notion,” added Kyle.
David Reutimann, Marcos Ambrose, Ryan Newman, Kasey Kahne, Mark Martin, Kevin Harvick and Tony Stewart (completing the Top 10) will therefore move up one position on the starting lineup for the Shelby 427.
Here is the complete results of the qualifying session:
1. Kyle Busch (Toyota) 185.995
2. Kurt Busch (Dodge) 185.707
3. Jimmie Johnson (Chevrolet) 185.688
4. David Reutimann (Toyota) 185.624
5. Marcos Ambrose (Toyota) 185.459
6. Ryan Newman (Chevrolet) 185.395
7. Kasey Kahne (Dodge) 185.382
8. Mark Martin (Chevrolet) 185.312
9. Kevin Harvick (Chevrolet) 185.281
10. Tony Stewart (Chevrolet) 185.217
11. David Stremme (Dodge) 185.077
12. Sam Hornish Jr (Dodge) 184.988
13. Brad Keselowski (Chevrolet) 184.786
14. Jeff Burton (Chevrolet) 184.565
15. Michael Waltrip (Toyota) 184.54
16. Carl Edwards (Ford) 184.495
17. Bobby Labonte (Ford) 184.432
18. Regan Smith (Chevrolet) 184.432
19. AJ Allmendinger (Dodge) 184.395
20. Joey Logano (Toyota) 184.388
21. Brian Vickers (Toyota) 184.168
22. Joe Nemechek (Toyota) 184.162
23. Juan Montoya (Chevrolet) 184.118
24. Greg Biffle (Ford) 184.005
25. Martin Truex Jr (Chevrolet) 183.999
26. Max Papis (Toyota) 183.974
27. Aric Almirola (Chevrolet) 183.936
28. Jeff Gordon (Chevrolet) 183.798
29. John Andretti (Chevrolet) 183.786
30. David Gilliland (Chevrolet) 183.749
31. Dale Earnhardt Jr (Chevrolet) 183.742
32. Robby Gordon (Toyota) 183.486
33. Elliott Sadler (Dodge) 183.461
34. Denny Hamlin (Toyota) 183.293
35. David Ragan (Ford) 183.144
36. Paul Menard (Ford) 182.921
37. Clint Bowyer (Chevrolet) 182.772
38. Jamie McMurray (Ford) 182.574
39. Reed Sorenson (Dodge) 182.469
40. Matt Kenseth (Ford) 182.143
41. Casey Mears (Chevrolet) 181.928
42. Scott Speed (Toyota) 181.257
43. Todd Bodine (Toyota) 183.231
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