Kahne on pole as Kansas speeds rise

Kasey Kahne claimed his fourth pole position of the NASCAR Sprint Cup season with a record-setting lap in qualifying for Sunday’s Chase round at the newly repaved Kansas Speedway.

The Hendrick Motorsports driver denied veteran Mark Martin another pole. Martin’s benchmark was beaten by the #5 Chevrolet with a flying lap at an average speed of 191.360 mph, just a couple of hundredths faster than what the Michael Waltrip Racing driver had managed.

Given the track’s resurfacing and reconfiguration, which included adding variable and increased banking in the turns, the whole field lapped under the existing track record. Kahne actually ran 1.6 seconds faster despite Goodyear’s cautious approach with tyre selection for the weekend.

“The car was awesome right there,” Kahne said. “It was great. I went into [Turn] 3, and felt like I could go wide open. So I went back to wide open, and then I started just chattering a little bit. So, I eased off the throttle and back down. I definitely gave up a little time doing that.”

Martin’s team-mate Clint Bowyer, fresh from his victory at Charlotte last week, was third fastest and also broke the 191mph barrier. Kyle Busch made it three Toyotas among the top four on the grid.

Richard Petty’s Aric Almirola was the best Ford in fifth ahead of Stewart-Haas’ Ryan Newman and Hendrick’s Jimmie Johnson.

Joe Gibbs duo Joey Logano and title contender Denny Hamlin followed in eighth and ninth respectively. Hamlin was running his back-up car after crashing his primary one during Thursday morning’s test session.

Richard Childress Racing’s Kevin Harvick completed the top 10 ahead of Greg Biffle, who was unable to back up his speed from practice earlier in the day, having run a lap that would have placed him on the front row during the opening session.

Chase leader Brad Keselowski had yet another poor qualifying with only 25th fastest place – his third consecutive start outside the top 20. But he is still expected to be a factor in Sunday’s race at the track where he claimed his first Cup victory for Penske Racing last year in a fuel-saving run.

Michael McDowell was the fastest of the non-guaranteed drivers in 23rd. Cole Whitt, David Stremme and Josh Wise failed to make the field.

Source: http://www.iracing.com/inracingnews/nascar-news/nascar/kahne-on-pole-as-kansas-speeds-rise

Jeffrey Michael Gordon Charles Robert Hamilton IV Charles Robert Hamilton V Kevin Michael Harvick Virgil Ernest Irvan III