BUESCHER A BIT OF A SURPRISE AS WINNER OF POLE

Chris Buescher was the surprise pole winner Saturday at Dover Motor Speedway, turning a lap of 160.149 mph to win his first career top spot.

The RFK Racing driver will be joined on the front row by Denny Hamlin, ordered this week by NASCAR to begin sensitivity training after he posted an anti-asian meme.

“Pretty cool of RFK to get our first pole,” Buescher said. “It’s a pretty cool start for us.”

Buescher also earned the first pole for RFK Racing in the No. 17 Ford. Brad Keselowski left Team Penske in November for an ownership stake in Jack Roush’s organization, forging a new partnership. Keselowski and Buescher opened strong for RFK Racing when they won the 150-mile qualifying races at Daytona International Speedway in February.

It’s been a bit of a rough ride over the past two months.

Keselowski was rocked last month with crushing penalties for illegal modifications made to his Ford, and Buescher hasn’t finished better than 15th in his any of his last four races. Buescher has only one career win over 232 career Cup starts.

“It’s been a long time coming,” Buescher said. “We’re slowly and steadily building up through the season. It’s not the race. We have a lot of laps left to go. But a heck of a start.”

Kyle Larson and Chase Elliott for Hendrick Motorsports start third and fourth in Chevrolets. Ryan Blaney rounds out the top five for today’s race on the mile concrete track.

Xfinity result

Josh Berry led a dominant outing for JR Motorsports at Dover Motor Speedway and raced to his first NASCAR Xfinity Series victory of the season.

Berry had tears in his eyes and hoisted his daughter in the air after he took the checkered flag in the No. 8 Chevrolet for his third career Xfinity win in 39 starts.

JR Motorsports put four drivers in the top five on the one-mile track. Justin Allgaier was second, Noah Gragson fourth and 18-year-old Sam Mayer fifth.

Ty Gibbs interrupted the JR Motorsports run with a third-place finish.

NHRA qualifying

John Force topped Funny Car qualifying with his ZMAX Dragway-record run Friday night in the Circle K NHRA Four-wide Nationals.

The 72-year-old Force, a 16-time Funny Car season champion, had a 3.850-second pass at 334.24 mph in a Chevrolet Camaro, eclipsing the track record of 3.851 set by daughter Courtney Force five years ago.

Justin Ashley led Top Fuel with his Friday pass of 3.669 at 331.77. Angelle Sampey topped the Pro Stock Motorcycle lineup with a 6.714 at 201.16 Saturday on a Suzuki.