Kurt Busch wins pole for playoff race at Charlotte

CONCORD, N.C. — Kurt Busch felt like a kid again this week. He spent two full days in a testing simulator, trying to figure out the best way to manoeuvre around the new “roval” course at Charlotte Motor Speedway — a hybrid of a road course and oval that has NASCAR drivers staying up at night pondering how to conquer it — or at least a way to avoid crashing and advance to the next round of the playoffs.

Busch may have found something in the testing that others are still trying to learn, beating out A.J. Allmendinger to take the pole for Sunday’s race in his No. 41 Ford.

“I turned 40 this year and there I am on the simulator acting like it’s a video game,” Busch said with a laugh. “But you have to do those things.”

Busch the said key is to not “overdrive” in the next corner trying to pick up time lost in the previous corner.

“I think that’s an important fundamental aspect of going into a new style of track,” Busch said.

Busch called it “really special” to lead the field at the roval, his fourth pole of the season. The roval is unlike anything used before in NASCAR featuring a 17-turn, 2.28-mile course that has a 35-foot change in elevation.

It is going to require drivers to think outside the box, particularly those who enter the elimination race in need of a good showing to advance to the round of 12.

Denny Hamlin, one of four drivers on the outside looking in at the top 12, wrecked in qualifying and will start 27th.

Clint Bowyer, Jimmie Johnson and Erik Jones — the other three outside the line — qualified in the top 12, with Johnson starting sixth.

Busch is eighth in the playoff standings.