Matt Kenseth was one of the more surprised people when he captured the pole for the Kobalt 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Friday evening.
It was only his fifth pole in 403 tries in NASCAR’s Sprint Cup division. “Five poles in 12 years, that is a little better than I thought,” said Kenseth whose last pole was in 2009.
He explained: “It is good to be on pole and I look forward to the race on Sunday. We worked really hard on race practice today and had a lot of speed and in qualifying trim we obviously had a lot of speed.”
To cap it off Kenseth set track-record to 28.589 seconds at 188.884 mph.
It was a Ford fast Friday as Marcos Ambrose – a former road racer - was second quickest followed by last week’s pole winner, Carl Edwards, and fellow Roush Fenway driver, Greg Biffle. Seventh-place AJ Allmendinger made it five Fords in the top-10.
“I have been second a few times now in my Cup career in qualifying, so I have been bumped out several times and it never feels any nicer,” the Australian-born Ambrose said.
“I am really pleased today. Matt [Kenseth] did a great lap and you can’t complain when someone beats you on speed. It isn’t like he lucked into it. He had the fastest car in practice and he delivered when it counted.”
Edwards, looking to bounce back from an early retirement in Phoenix last week, after he was hit by Kyle Busch’s car, said: “It is good that the first two rows are Fords. That is a testament to how hard our guys are working at the shop and Doug Yates and everyone with the FR9 engine they have done an amazing job.”
The third row belonged to Joe Gibbs Racing teammates, Kyle Busch and Joey Logano, respectively, driving Toyota.
Ryan Newman had the fastest Chevrolet car in 8th followed by Martin Truex, Jr. in 9th. Mark Martin rounded the top-10.
Phoenix winner, Jeff Gordon was thirteenth while Daytona 500 winner, Trevor Bayne was 15th.
Brian Keselowski, Brad's older brother, failed to qualify for the 43-car field.
It was only his fifth pole in 403 tries in NASCAR’s Sprint Cup division. “Five poles in 12 years, that is a little better than I thought,” said Kenseth whose last pole was in 2009.
He explained: “It is good to be on pole and I look forward to the race on Sunday. We worked really hard on race practice today and had a lot of speed and in qualifying trim we obviously had a lot of speed.”
To cap it off Kenseth set track-record to 28.589 seconds at 188.884 mph.
It was a Ford fast Friday as Marcos Ambrose – a former road racer - was second quickest followed by last week’s pole winner, Carl Edwards, and fellow Roush Fenway driver, Greg Biffle. Seventh-place AJ Allmendinger made it five Fords in the top-10.
“I have been second a few times now in my Cup career in qualifying, so I have been bumped out several times and it never feels any nicer,” the Australian-born Ambrose said.
“I am really pleased today. Matt [Kenseth] did a great lap and you can’t complain when someone beats you on speed. It isn’t like he lucked into it. He had the fastest car in practice and he delivered when it counted.”
Edwards, looking to bounce back from an early retirement in Phoenix last week, after he was hit by Kyle Busch’s car, said: “It is good that the first two rows are Fords. That is a testament to how hard our guys are working at the shop and Doug Yates and everyone with the FR9 engine they have done an amazing job.”
The third row belonged to Joe Gibbs Racing teammates, Kyle Busch and Joey Logano, respectively, driving Toyota.
Ryan Newman had the fastest Chevrolet car in 8th followed by Martin Truex, Jr. in 9th. Mark Martin rounded the top-10.
Phoenix winner, Jeff Gordon was thirteenth while Daytona 500 winner, Trevor Bayne was 15th.
Brian Keselowski, Brad's older brother, failed to qualify for the 43-car field.