Matt Kenseth will start off the point in NASCAR’s longest race of the season, the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
In what is his second pole of the season, the Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota driver set a qualifying mark of 312.618 km/h (194.252 mph) or 27.799 seconds around the 1.5 mile speedway. So impressive was his performance that the next best was Joey Logano a sizeable 0.204 seconds further back.
“I think starting up front is important at this track,” said Kenseth.
“It typically goes through a lot of changes here, especially if the sun is out for the beginning of the race. You want to have good track position, good pit selection—all those things—so if you get a little bit off and you’re chasing the setup, or the track changes, you have a little bit of a buffer being toward the front, hopefully.
ADVERTISEMENT
“All the Joe Gibbs Racing Toyotas had some speed tonight, and that was encouraging.”
Carl Edwards was third in his Gibbs Toyota, followed by Greg Biffle (Ford) and winner of last week’s NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race, Denny Hamlin (Gibbs Toyota).
All four Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet entries failed to advance to the final round of knockout qualifying. However Kasey Kahne did cut a tyre and will start from 33rd.
49 cars took part in qualifying for the 43-car field with Jeb Burton, Mike Bliss, Travis Kvapil, Jeff Green and Brendan Gaughan all missing the cut.
The race will be held Sunday night Charlotte time.
QUALIFYING: Coca-Cola 600 – Charlotte Motor Speedway
POS.
CAR #
DRIVER
MANUFACTURER
SPONSOR
BEST SPEED
BEST TIME
BEHIND
1
20
Matt Kenseth
DeWalt
194.252
27.799
Leader
2
22
Joey Logano
Shell Pennzoil
192.836
28.003
–0.204
3
19
Carl Edwards
Subway
192.733
28.018
–0.219
4
16
Greg Biffle
Ortho Ford Fusion
192.226
28.092
–0.293
5
11
Denny Hamlin
FedEx Office
192.007
28.124
–0.325
6
2
Brad Keselowski
Miller Lite
191.884
28.142
–0.343
7
55
David Ragan
Aaron’s Dream Machine
191.625
28.180
–0.381
8
4
Kevin Harvick
Budweiser / Jimmy John’s
191.272
28.232
–0.433
9
42
Kyle Larson
Target
191.266
28.233
–0.434
10
78
Martin Truex Jr
Furniture Row/Visser Precision
190.322
28.373
–0.574
11
3
Austin Dillon
Cheerios
189.833
28.446
–0.647
12
14
Tony Stewart
Bass Pro Shops / Mobil 1
185.414
29.124
–1.325
13
48
Jimmie Johnson
Lowe’s Patriotic
191.727
28.165
–0.366
14
41
Kurt Busch
Haas Automation
191.714
28.167
–0.368
15
88
Dale Earnhardt Jr
Nationwide
191.686
28.171
–0.372
16
21
Ryan Blaney
Motorcraft / Quick Lane Tire & Auto Center
191.666
28.174
–0.375
17
18
Kyle Busch
Skittles
191.428
28.209
–0.410
18
24
Jeff Gordon
Drive To End Hunger
191.354
28.220
–0.421
19
31
Ryan Newman
Quicken Loans
191.150
28.250
–0.451
20
10
Danica Patrick
GoDaddy
190.954
28.279
–0.480
21
43
Aric Almirola
United States Air Force
190.826
28.298
–0.499
22
1
Jamie McMurray
Cessna/McDonald’s
190.597
28.332
–0.533
23
27
Paul Menard
Serta / Menards
189.980
28.424
–0.625
24
15
Clint Bowyer
Cherry 5-hour Energy benefiting Special Operations Warrior Foundation