Busch lands Indy pole
Kyle Busch poses with his son Brexton after winning the pole for today’s race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
INDIANAPOLIS — Less than an hour after watching one winning streak end Saturday, Kyle Busch started working on another.
Now the two-time defending Brickyard 400 champion is in the best possible position for an unprecedented threepeat at Indianapolis.
Busch became the first Cup driver in nearly two decades to win back-toback Indy poles by saving his fastest lap for the final one of the day.
His speed of 187.301 mph was almost a mph faster than second-place Kevin Harvick and was the second-fastest polewinning speed in the race’s 24-year history.
“Obviously, we’ve had a really fast car,” Busch said after winning his fourth pole of the season. “We’ve been focused on race trim and I felt like we did a pretty good job with that. But I wasn’t sure about qualifying. So, obviously, they were listened to what our teammates had to say.”
He couldn’t quibble with the results.
Harvick’s No. 4 Ford was second at 186.332 and Jamie McMurray, in the No. 1 Chevrolet, wound
NASCAR-Brickyard 400 Saturday’s qualifying; race today At Indianapolis Motor Speedway
Speedway, Ind. (Car number in parentheses) 1. (18) Kyle Busch, Toyota, 187.301
mph. 2. (4) Kevin Harvick, Ford, 186.332. 3. (1) Jamie McMurray, Chevrolet,
186.274. 4. (48) Jimmie Johnson,
185.851. 5. (11) Denny Hamlin,
185.820. 6. (78) Martin Truex Jr.,
185.736. 7. (22) Joey Logano, Ford, 185.716. 8. (31) Ryan Newman, Chevrolet,
185.143. 9. (77) Erik Jones, Toyota, 184.892. 10. (21) Ryan Blaney, Ford, 184.615. 11. (2) Brad Keselowski, Ford,
184.256. 12. (41) Kurt Busch, Ford, 184.158. 13. (88) Dale Earnhardt Jr.,
Chevrolet, 184.578. 14. (20) Matt Kenseth, Toyota, 184.468. 15. (19) Daniel Suarez, Toyota,
184.453. 16. (24) Chase Elliott,
184.260. 17. (27) Paul Menard,
183.707. 18. (14) Clint Bowyer, Ford, 183.599. 19. (5) Kasey Kahne, Chevrolet,
183.539. Chevrolet, Toyota, Toyota, Chevrolet, Chevrolet,
up third at 186.274. Nobody else topped 185.
If the 2015 Cup champion wins today, he will join former Formula One star Michael Schumacher as the only drivers with three straight Indy wins in the premier series of their respective leagues. Schumacher won the U.S. Grand Prix four consecutive times on the road 20. (3) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 183.303. 21. (17) Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Ford,
183.284. 22. (6) Trevor Bayne, Ford, 183.165. 23. (10) Danica Patrick, Ford,
181.859. 24. (95) Michael McDowell,
Chevrolet, 181.818. 25. (42) Kyle Larson, Chevrolet,
183.404. 26. (37) Chris Buescher,
183.292. 27. (32) Matt DiBenedetto,
182.508. 28. (13) Ty Dillon,
182.397. 29. (43) Aric Almirola, Ford, 182.087. 30. (38) David Ragan, Ford, 181.181. 31. (34) Landon Cassill, Ford,
180.886. 32. (23) Corey LaJoie,
179.404. 33. (7) JJ Yeley, Chevrolet, 178.497. 34. (72) Cole Whitt, Chevrolet,
177.795. 35. (55) Gray Gaulding,
175.857. 36. (33) Jeffrey Earnhardt,
175.104. 37. (66) Timmy Hill,
173.923. 38. (15) Joey Gase, Chevrolet, 162.643. 39. (47) AJ Allmendinger, Chevrolet,
0.000. 40. (51) BJ McLeod,
0.000. Chevrolet, Ford, Chevrolet, Toyota, Chevrolet, Chevrolet, Chevrolet, Chevrolet,
course. Nobody has ever won three straight races on Indy’s oval.
“We’ve just got to keep it there, stay up front and, of course, lead the last lap,” Busch said as his 2-year-old son, Brexton, giggled into a microphone.
For Busch, it was another marathon session on another hot, humid midsummer Darron Cummings / The Associated Press afternoon in the No. 18 Toyota. He drove in both of the morning’s Cup practices, qualified for the NASCAR Xfinity Series race in the early afternoon and watched his four-race Indy winning streak snapped after a late pit stop dropped him from first to 21st. Busch finished 12th.
After about a 30-minute break, he was back in the car for three more qualifying rounds. His last lap allowed him to join Jeff Gordon (1995-96) and Ernie Irvan (1997-98) as the race’s only back-to-back pole winners.
It certainly wasn’t strategy.
“When you’re in such a short window, five minutes, you couldn’t come back and get the tires cooled in time to make another lap,” he said. But it was good enough. Harvick, meanwhile, found the consistency he was seeking but avoided going too hard to get into trouble.
“I think that was the right approach,” Harvick said. “I’ve tried to get too much in the last round and this is just not the place where you can overdrive the entry and make up for something. The problems compound fast here, but it’s good to have that speed.”