Race Weekend Central

Two in a Row: Kurt Busch Captures Sprint Cup Pole at Las Vegas

Kurt Busch earned his second pole at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway and his second straight after sitting on the pole last week at Atlanta.

Busch clocked in ahead of Joey Logano with around two minutes remaining in the last around. His speed of 196.328 mph set a new track record.

Busch is competing at his home track one year after having to sit this race out due to domestic abuse allegations in 2015. The first time Busch sat on pole at Vegas, 2010, he finished 35th after getting caught in an accident before half way. The last time Busch raced at Vegas in 2014, he struggled to 26th with his then-new No. 41 team.

Busch is coming off a fourth place result last week at Atlanta, and hopes to continue his streak of top-ten finishes to start of the season.

After being fast in opening practice in qualifying trim, it seemed Logano was going to be a favorite going into the last round. Logano’s time was good enough for his third straight front row start at Las Vegas, but it wasn’t enough to hold off Busch.

Matt Kenseth will start in the third position on Sunday. It’s Kenseth’s best qualifying effort since he won the pole for last fall’s Charlotte race. 2014 Las Vegas Sprint Cup winner Brad Keselowski will start next to Kenseth in third. Austin Dillon, the defending Xfinity Series winner at Vegas, rounds out the top 5.

Defending Sprint Cup winner at Las Vegas, Kevin Harvick, starts sixth after nearly being knocked out of the first round of qualifying.

Chase Elliott, who missed out on competing in the final round by just seven thousandths of a second, was the highest qualifying rookie at 13th. Starting right next to Elliott will be fellow rookie Ryan Blaney in 14th.

Brian Vickers will start 19th subbing for Tony Stewart amid some controversy. Vickers was in turn three in the second round, completing a hot lap when Carl Edwards smacked the wall in turn one after his right rear tire went down. The incident caused a red flag, but both Vickers and Kasey Kahne appeared to complete their qualifying attempts. NASCAR ruled that Kahne’s time would be allowed but that the No. 14 Chevrolet’s wouldn’t. An argument broke out on pit road between the No. 14 crew (Most notably Stewart) and NASCAR officials to no avail. Vickers appeared to have to pace to make it to the final segment in the lap disallowed by NASCAR.

Kyle Busch uncharacteristically struggled in qualifying. The defending champion barely got into the second round and was the slowest of all cars who finished a lap in the second segment. “Rowdy” will starts 23rd on Sunday.

Edwards will go to a back-up car and start in the back after his incident. He will be joined by Jamie McMurray, who smacked the wall in round one of qualifying, prompting his team to roll out the back up.

The Sprint Cup series has two more practice sessions on Saturday before the race on Sunday. The first will go green at 8:30 a.m. PT (11:30 a.m. ET), with final practice following at 11:30 a.m. (2:30 p.m. ET).

About the author

Michael has watched NASCAR for 20 years and regularly covered the sport from 2013-2021. He moved on to Formula 1, IndyCar, and SRX coverage for the site, while still putting a toe in the water from time-to-time back into the NASCAR pool.

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