Busch builds momentum at Brickyard
INDIANAPOLIS — Kyle Busch crashed Tony Stewart’s scripted farewell party and pushed Jeff Gordon’s comeback bid to the middle of the pack yesterday by accomplishing one of his biggest career goals — claiming his first Brickyard 400 pole.
Busch, the defending race winner, had the fastest lap in the third and final round of qualifying, just ahead of Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Carl Edwards.
The winning speed for Busch was 184.634 mph. Edwards was second at 184.547 mph and Stewart will start third in the final race on his home track after posting a 184.328. The retired Gordon qualified 21st in the 40-car field as the replacement for the injured Dale Earnhardt Jr.
“Being able to sit on the pole here at Indy is something you always want to do — or at least it’s something I’ve always wanted to do,” Busch said, before adding an Xfinity Series win to his big day. “Overall, I feel like our baseline has been pretty good here this weekend.”
Nobody has been hotter than Busch this weekend.
As searing temperatures inside the cars routinely topped 110 degrees, Busch kept his cool. He had the fastest lap after two practice rounds Friday despite being sent into a spin after a brush with Patrick Carpentier. Yesterday, Busch won his second straight Lilly Diabetes 250 pole, posted the fastest lap in each of the final two qualifying rounds for the Brickyard and then won the Xfinity race.
Now, Busch is in perfect position to become the second Cup driver to win the 400 back-to-back. Fourtime race winner Jimmie Johnson did it in 2008 and 2009 though the first win in that sequence came during the tire fiasco that forced caution flags to come out every 10 or 11 laps.
But Stewart thought he missed an opportunity to stop Busch.
“I just wish we could do Lap 3 one more time and could have kept it off the apron in turn four,” he said. “Or I think we could be on the pole.”
Gordon easily made it in despite having only one day in the No. 88 car. His fast lap of 185.616 came in the first round. That was good enough to advance, but he was eliminated after going just 181.851 in Round 2. “We made some nice improvements today, we just were a little tight the second time we went out,” Gordon said. The only driver who did not qualify was Josh Wise.
JGR also has built up some momentum after Matt Kenseth won last week’s race at New Hampshire and Denny Hamlin qualified fourth, giving the team three of the top four spots on the starting grid.