Kurt Busch snags Texas pole and sets new track record

Busch posted an average lap speed of 200.915 mph to lead five drivers to surpass Texas Motor Speedway’s previous track record (200.111 mph set by Tony Stewart in 2014).

"It's something when you set a new qualifying record and it's above 200 mph on the scoring pylon. I told a couple buddies that we were going to go above 200 mph today and that's average speed," Busch said.

"When you have a car that goes that fast, it comes with a lot of hard work from (crew chief) Tony Gibson and the guys on this No. 41 car. It's neat to have that feeling - you drive down into the orner and just mat the gas and have it stick.

"We've struggled a little bit in the third round this year and this time around I said, 'Throw everything at it.'"

Denny Hamlin as second-fastest, Kevin Harvick was third, Erik Jones fourth and last weekend’s race winner, Kyle Busch, completed the top-five.

The rest of the Top 12 starters for Sunday’s AAA 500: Daniel Suarez, Martin Truex Jr., Ryan Blaney, Jimmie Johnson, Brad Keselowski, Kyle Larson and Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

The pole is the first of the season for Kurt Busch, 22nd of his career and second at Texas.

Hamlin and Harvick lead the way for eight drivers still in contention for the series championship.

Round 2

Jones became the first driver to cross the 200 mph barrier, leading the way in Round 2 with an average lap speed of 200.022 mph.

Hamlin came up just short at 199.926 mph. Harvick was third-fastest, Kurt Busch fourth and Truex fifth.

Also advancing to the final round were: Kyle Busch, Suarez, Blaney, Johnson, Keselowski, Larson and Stenhouse.

Among those who failed to advance were: Jamie McMurray, Danica Patrick, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kasey Kahne and Clint Bowyer.

“It was just too loose in (Turns) 1 and 2 off of the wall,” Earnhardt said over his team radio after his qualifying attempt.

Round 1 and inspection issues

After spending extra time in the garage to clear inspection, Harvick finally made it on the track and led the way in the first round of knockout qualifying.

Harvick’s average lap speed of 199.882 mph was enough to hold off Stewart-Haas Racing teammate, Kurt Busch (199.269 mph).

Jones was third-fastest, Keselowski fourth and Hamlin fifth.

Chase Elliott will start the race from the rear of the field after his No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet was one of seven drivers who failed to clear pre-qualifying inspection and take a qualifying lap in Round 1. He will officially line up 34th on Sunday.

“I’ll just play it by ear and see what happens,” Elliott said about the start of Sunday’s race.

"We had, I thought, a decent car today throughout race practice and thought it drove pretty good in qualifying trim. I was kind of excited about qualifying, and qualifying hasn’t been a really strong suit for me. But, I’m looking forward to Sunday and again, we know we’ve got to start in the back, so we’ll try to have a good practice tomorrow and get it driving good and go from there."

The others who did not take a lap speed were Joey Logano, Matt Kenseth, Trevor Bayne, Reed Sorenson, Corey LaJoie and Gray Gaulding.

Logano said he was “very disappointed” in not being able to make a qualifying attempt. “The LIS (Laser Inspection Station) got us again,” he said.

With 10 minutes remaining in Round 1, only two cars had taken speeds and at least 10 still had not cleared pre-qualifying inspection.

When the first round began, about a dozen cars had not cleared inspection, including Elliott, Kenseth, Logano, Daniel Suarez, Hamlin, Harvick and Kahne.

Xfinity Series regular Daniel Hemric qualified the No. 27 Chevrolet in place of Paul Menard, who was back in the Charlotte area after wife gave birth Wednesday to the couple’s second child.

Cla	#	Driver	Manufacturer	Time	Gap	Mph
1	41	Kurt Busch	Ford	26.877		200.915
2	11	Denny Hamlin	Toyota	26.917	0.040	200.617
3	4	Kevin Harvick	Ford	26.949	0.072	200.378
4	77	Erik Jones	Toyota	26.956	0.079	200.326
5	18	Kyle Busch	Toyota	26.966	0.089	200.252
6	19	Daniel Suarez	Toyota	27.055	0.178	199.593
7	78	Martin Truex Jr.	Toyota	27.077	0.200	199.431
8	21	Ryan Blaney	Ford	27.084	0.207	199.380
9	48	Jimmie Johnson	Chevrolet	27.173	0.296	198.727
10	2	Brad Keselowski	Ford	27.207	0.330	198.478
11	42	Kyle Larson	Chevrolet	27.253	0.376	198.143
12	17	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	Ford	27.262	0.385	198.078
13	1	Jamie McMurray	Chevrolet	27.315	0.438	197.694
14	10	Danica Patrick	Ford	27.322	0.445	197.643
15	3	Austin Dillon	Chevrolet	27.337	0.460	197.534
16	47	A.J. Allmendinger	Chevrolet	27.346	0.469	197.469
17	88	Dale Earnhardt Jr.	Chevrolet	27.350	0.473	197.441
18	43	Aric Almirola	Ford	27.374	0.497	197.267
19	5	Kasey Kahne	Chevrolet	27.397	0.520	197.102
20	14	Clint Bowyer	Ford	27.477	0.600	196.528
21	27	Daniel Hemric	Chevrolet	27.520	0.643	196.221
22	34	Landon Cassill	Ford	27.601	0.724	195.645
23	95	Michael McDowell	Chevrolet	27.807	0.930	194.196
24	38	David Ragan	Ford	27.810	0.933	194.175
25	31	Ryan Newman	Chevrolet	27.671	0.794	195.150
26	37	Chris Buescher	Chevrolet	27.725	0.848	194.770
27	13	Ty Dillon	Chevrolet	27.846	0.969	193.924
28	32	Matt DiBenedetto	Ford	27.849	0.972	193.903
29	72	Cole Whitt	Chevrolet	28.143	1.266	191.877
30	7	Joey Gase	Chevrolet	28.717	1.840	188.042
31	51	Ray Black Jr.	Chevrolet	28.861	1.984	187.104
32	33	Jeffrey Earnhardt	Chevrolet	28.876	1.999	187.007
33	66	David Starr	Chevrolet	29.704	2.827	181.794
--	23	Corey Lajoie	Toyota	0.000		0.000
--	20	Matt Kenseth	Toyota	0.000		0.000
--	6	Trevor Bayne	Ford	0.000		0.000
--	15	Reed Sorenson	Chevrolet	0.000		0.000
--	22	Joey Logano	Ford	0.000		0.000
--	83	Gray Gaulding	Toyota	0.000		0.000
--	24	Chase Elliott	Chevrolet	0.000		0.000