Keselowski takes third pole of the season

Brad Keselowski has won the Coors Lite Pole for the Quaker State 400 in Kentucky.

Team Penske’s strong run on 1.5 mile tracks continued as Joey Logano will start alongside.

As they also have been all year, qualifying speeds were up with his mark of 188.791 mph (303.830 km/h) some five miles per hour quicker than the old mark.

“We’re right where we want to be, starting first is a great start but it’s just that it’s just a start,” said Keselowski.

” You still have to execute a race and by no means a guarantee of a win, so we’ll want to go out there and earn that Saturday.  But we’re right where we want to be in that sense, so we’ll keep pushing forward and I’m just taking a second to reflect on the efforts of our team and how proud I am of that and without them we couldn’t be here.”

Jeff Gordon will start third, followed by Denny Hamlin and Kevin Harvick.

The two-car outfits of Team Penske and Chip Ganassi Racing both got their drivers into the final round of qualifying for the top-12. Stewart-Haas Racing had three of its four drivers in the top-12 with team boss Tony Stewart missing the cut.

All 24 drivers who advanced to the 10-minute second round broke the old track record of 183.636 mph, set just last year by Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Jimmie Johnson (25th) and Earnhardt Jr. (29th) did not advance out of the opening 25-minute round, likewise Marcos Ambrose who will start 27th.

“The car was free getting in and then tight in the centre, but we have been working on the car all day,” said Ambrose.

“We really showed some speed in the second practice and were near the top of the speed charts, but need to be more consistent. We just need to work hard tomorrow night.”

One other note from qualifying was that only 42 cars turned up to race. The field is capped at 43 and on most weekends some cars fail to make the field. It is the first time since 2001, when the re-scheduled race at Loudon occurred after the September 11 bombings, that a race will start with less 43 entries.

VIDEO: Brad Keselowski wins pole in Kentucky

QUALIFYING: Quaker State 400 in Kentucky Motor Speedway 

POS.	CAR	DRIVER	MANUFACTURER	SPONSOR	MPH	BEST TIME	BEHIND
1	2	Brad Keselowski	Ford	Miller Lite	188.791	28.603	Leader
2	22	Joey Logano	Ford	Shell Pennzoil	187.175	28.850	–0.247
3	24	Jeff Gordon	Chevrolet	Drive to End Hunger	186.832	28.903	–0.300
4	11	Denny Hamlin	Toyota	FedEx Office	186.374	28.974	–0.371
5	4	Kevin Harvick	Chevrolet	Budweiser	186.104	29.016	–0.413
6	42	Kyle Larson	Chevrolet	Target	186.034	29.027	–0.424
7	31	Ryan Newman	Chevrolet	Caterpillar	186.014	29.030	–0.427
8	1	Jamie McMurray	Chevrolet	Lexar	185.957	29.039	–0.436
9	41	Kurt Busch	Chevrolet	Haas Automation	185.950	29.040	–0.437
10	10	Danica Patrick	Chevrolet	GoDaddy	185.803	29.063	–0.460
11	15	Clint Bowyer	Toyota	5-Hour Energy	185.414	29.124	–0.521
12	27	Paul Menard	Chevrolet	Quaker State / Menards	185.096	29.174	–0.571
13	14	Tony Stewart	Chevrolet	Rush Truck Centers	185.854	29.055	–0.452
14	20	Matt Kenseth	Toyota	Dollar General	185.714	29.077	–0.474
15	47	AJ Allmendinger	Chevrolet	Scott Products	185.503	29.110	–0.507
16	3	Austin Dillon	Chevrolet	Cheerios Protein	185.344	29.135	–0.532
17	55	Brian Vickers	Toyota	Aaron’s Dream Machine	185.096	29.174	–0.571
18	18	Kyle Busch	Toyota	M&M’s	185.052	29.181	–0.578
19	78	Martin Truex Jr	Chevrolet	Furniture Row	184.761	29.227	–0.624
20	5	Kasey Kahne	Chevrolet	Great Clips	184.464	29.274	–0.671
21	17	Ricky Stenhouse Jr	Ford	Fifth Third Bank Ford	184.307	29.299	–0.696
22	43	Aric Almirola	Ford	Eckrich	184.300	29.300	–0.697
23	99	Carl Edwards	Ford	UPS	184.106	29.331	–0.728
24	16	Greg Biffle	Ford	No. 16 3M ACE Bandage Ford Fusion	183.138	29.486	–0.883
25	48	Jimmie Johnson	Chevrolet	Lowe’s	183.661	29.402	–0.799
26	13	Casey Mears	Chevrolet	No. 13 GEICO Chevrolet SS	183.424	29.440	–0.837
27	9	Marcos Ambrose	Ford	Black & Decker	183.163	29.482	–0.879
28	51	Justin Allgaier	Chevrolet	BRANDT Professional Agriculture	182.815	29.538	–0.935
29	88	Dale Earnhardt Jr	Chevrolet	National Guard	182.803	29.540	–0.937
30	26	Cole Whitt	Toyota	Speed Stick GEAR Toyota	182.778	29.544	–0.941
31	36	Reed Sorenson	Chevrolet	Theme Park Connection	181.916	29.684	–1.081
32	7	Michael Annett	Chevrolet	Pilot / Flying J Chevrolet	181.464	29.758	–1.155
33	23	Alex Bowman	Toyota	Dr. Pepper Toyota Camry	181.287	29.787	–1.184
34	98	Josh Wise	Chevrolet	Phil Parsons Racing	181.196	29.802	–1.199
35	32	Travis Kvapil	Ford	CorvetteParts.net	180.421	29.930	–1.327
36	34	David Ragan	Ford	Taco Bell	179.700	30.050	–1.447
37	40	Landon Cassill	Chevrolet	SNap Fitness	179.348	30.109	–1.506
38	33	David Stremme	Chevrolet	Thunder Coal	178.672	30.223	–1.620
39	83	Ryan Truex	Toyota	Burger King Toyota Camry	178.406	30.268	–1.665
40	66	Joe Nemechek	Toyota	Vydox	178.065	30.326	–1.723
41	38	David Gilliland	Ford	Love’s Travel Stops	176.800	30.543	–1.940
42	93	Mike Bliss	Toyota	Dr. Pepper Toyota Camry	171.385	31.508	–2.905