Kyle Busch edges Truex for first pole of 2017 season

Kyle Busch held off a strong challenge from Martin Truex Jr. to win the pole for Sunday’s AAA 400 at Dover (Del.) International Speedway as Toyotas swept the top four starting positions.

Busch’s average lap speed of 158.954 mph was just enough to top Truex in the third and final round (158.877 mph).

Daniel Suarez qualified third - his best start of the season – while fellow JGR driver Matt Kenseth was fourth. Kyle Larson rounded out the top-five.

Rounding out the top 12 positions: Kurt Busch, Erik Jones, Brad Keselowski, Austin Dillon, Denny Hamlin, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

The pole is Busch’s first of the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season and 20th of his career.

“It feels good, it feels great to beat (Truex),” Busch said. “Those guys are really on it. Being on the pole here will give us a really good pit (stall) selection and get us some track position right off the bat.

“We’ll work on our Camry tomorrow in practice and make sure we have a good race set-up underneath it.”

Busch called the new aero package’s debut at Dover this weekend “very edgy.”

“It’s a lot slower than it was last year,” he said. “I think it’s almost close to half-a-second or maybe more than that slower than last year. It’s definitely on edge on entry to the corners.”

Round 2

Kyle Busch edged his older brother Kurt to lead the way in the 10-minute second round of qualifying. Kyle’s average lap speed of 159.617 mph was enough to hold off Kurt (159.102 mph).

In all, the top three performers in Round 2 – Stenhouse was third-fastest – cleared the 159 mph barrier when no one did in Round 1.

Jones was fourth-fastest and Truex was fifth.

Also advancing to the final round were Larson, Kenseth, Austin Dillon, Suarez, Hamlin, Keselowski and Earnhardt.

Ryan Newman went out late in the session in an attempt to crack the Top 12 but ended up 13th-fastest.

“We just don’t have enough speed,” he said. “We were good enough to be 13th and we were really close.”

Among those also failing to advance were Jimmie Johnson, Ryan Blaney, Chase Elliott, Kevin Harvick and Clint Bowyer.

Earnhardt was the only one of the four Hendrick Motorsports drivers to move on to the final round.

Round 1

Larson backed up his performance from practice on Friday and edged Truex for the top average lap speed (158.983 mph) in the first 15-minute knockout session. Truex came in at 158.835 mph.

Kurt Busch posted the third-fastest speed, Suarez fourth and Jamie McMurray was fifth.

Denny Hamlin and Ryan Blaney both looked like they would fail to advance out of Round 1 but both made late runs in the session and locked in the 14th and 17th position, respectively.

Among those who failed to advance were Joey Logano, Chris Buescher, Regan Smith and Danica Patrick.

“We just didn’t have enough speed,” Logano said. “We were loose on the first run and then we over-adjusted and were too tight in the second run.”

It was only the second time this season Logano has failed to advance out of the first round of qualifying.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. felt much more comfortable with his car on Friday and posted the 11th-best speed in the first round.

“I couldn’t turn into Turn 3 because it was going to spin out – at least I thought it was,” Earnhardt said over his team radio.

Unlike last week at Charlotte Motor Speedway, all Cup teams cleared pre-qualifying inspection to take part in the first round.

Cla	#	Driver	Manufacturer	Time	Gap	Mph
1	18	Kyle Busch	Toyota	22.648		158.653
2	78	Martin Truex Jr.	Toyota	22.659	0.011	156.713
3	19	Daniel Suarez	Toyota	22.735	0.087	158.346
4	20	Matt Kenseth	Toyota	22.753	0.105	156.345
5	42	Kyle Larson	Chevrolet	22.759	0.111	158.179
6	41	Kurt Busch	Ford	22.764	0.116	158.144
7	77	Erik Jones	Toyota	22.831	0.183	157.680
8	2	Brad Keselowski	Ford	22.874	0.226	157.384
9	3	Austin Dillon	Chevrolet	22.914	0.266	156.535
10	11	Denny Hamlin	Toyota	22.925	0.277	157.034
11	88	Dale Earnhardt Jr.	Chevrolet	23.037	0.389	156.270
12	17	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	Ford	23.077	0.429	155.999
13	31	Ryan Newman	Chevrolet	22.836	0.188	157.020
14	48	Jimmie Johnson	Chevrolet	22.851	0.203	157.308
15	21	Ryan Blaney	Ford	22.865	0.217	157.089
16	24	Chase Elliott	Chevrolet	22.881	0.233	156.747
17	6	Trevor Bayne	Ford	22.887	0.239	157.295
18	4	Kevin Harvick	Ford	22.892	0.244	157.260
19	1	Jamie McMurray	Chevrolet	22.907	0.259	156.678
20	5	Kasey Kahne	Chevrolet	22.928	0.280	156.631
21	13	Ty Dillon	Chevrolet	22.968	0.320	156.740
22	14	Clint Bowyer	Ford	22.978	0.330	156.672
23	27	Paul Menard	Chevrolet	23.011	0.363	156.447
24	47	A.J. Allmendinger	Chevrolet	23.015	0.367	156.420
25	32	Matt DiBenedetto	Ford	23.017	0.369	156.406
26	22	Joey Logano	Ford	23.042	0.394	156.236
27	34	Landon Cassill	Ford	23.047	0.399	156.203
28	95	Michael McDowell	Chevrolet	23.067	0.419	156.067
29	37	Chris Buescher	Chevrolet	23.120	0.472	155.709
30	43	Regan Smith	Ford	23.136	0.488	154.759
31	10	Danica Patrick	Ford	23.162	0.514	154.566
32	23	Gray Gaulding	Toyota	23.269	0.621	153.656
33	38	David Ragan	Ford	23.288	0.640	154.586
34	83	Ryan Sieg	Toyota	23.514	0.866	153.100
35	72	Cole Whitt	Chevrolet	23.696	1.048	151.924
36	15	Ross Chastain	Chevrolet	23.738	1.090	151.656
37	66	Timmy Hill	Chevrolet	23.864	1.216	150.855
38	51	Cody Ware	Chevrolet	23.988	1.340	150.075
39	33	Jeffrey Earnhardt	Chevrolet	24.036	1.388	149.775