David Ragan earned his first career pole in the Sprint Cup Series after topping his Roush Fenway Racing teammate, Carl Edwards, in Friday’s qualifying at Texas Motor Speedway.
Ragan, who was the last to qualify among the top-35 in points, laid down a lap of 189.820 m.p.h. for his first pole in his 153rd Sprint Cup start. He was quickest in the first practice session on Thursday at Texas.
Ragan’s career-best finish in Sprint Cup is third, which occurred three times, most recently in the October 2008 race at Talladega.
Ragan and Edwards gave Roush the front starting row for Saturday night’s Samsung Mobile 500 at Texas. Edwards was more than one mile per hour slower than his teammate (188.521 m.p.h.). MiamiHerald.com
“First thing, I wasn’t backwards coming off of Turn 2 the way I was in Vegas, so that helped,” Ragan said. “When you’re fast in practice—and we’ve qualified in the top five, top 10 I think two or three times this year (fifth at Bristol and sixth at Fontana)—and when you do that, eventually you’re going to win a pole.
“And if you finish second, fifth and eighth, eventually you’ll win a race. I think that, ultimately, that’s our main goal. Our cars are just faster, and it’s just so much easier. I think we’re all qualifying a lot better because our cars are faster, they’re easier to drive and you don’t have to reinvent the wheel on qualifying days.”
Clint Bowyer (188.232) earned the third starting spot for the first night Cup race at Texas. Matt Kenseth (188.199) will start fourth, as Roush drivers claimed three of the top four positions. NASCAR.com
Roush drivers Matt Kenseth (fourth) and Greg Biffle (ninth) are also starting in the top 10.
Sprint Cup points leader Kyle Busch qualified 11th and Kevin Harvick, coming to Texas off consecutive wins, starts 29th.
“I’d certainly like to think so no matter where we end up in qualifying I think our race car’s a lot better,” Busch said.
Busch has won five Nationwide Series races and two Trucks Series races at Texas, but is 0 for 12 in Sprint Cup racing in the Lone Star State. Kansas City Star
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NASCAR Sprint Cup Series: Samsung Mobile 500 at Texas - Race Line-Up
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