Kasey Kahne will start on the pole for Sunday’s Toyota/Save Mart 350 after posting the fastest lap during qualifying at Infineon Raceway.
Kahne, who won his first road-course race in the Sprint Cup Series last year at Sonoma, turned a lap of 93.893 m.p.h. for his first pole of the season and the 17th of his career. His last pole came at this 1.99-mile course in Northern California two years ago.
Jimmie Johnson qualified 0.07 seconds behind Kahne to claim the outside pole. Johnson, the four-time defending series champion, has yet to win a road-course event.
Kurt Busch took the third spot, followed by Kevin Harvick, the points leader, and Jeff Gordon, who holds the record for most victories at Sonoma with five. MiamiHerald.com
“It’s a great car,” Kahne said. “It’s the same car we ran here last year, minus the engine. We’ve got a new Ford engine that runs really well. I’m looking forward to seeing how it runs throughout the race. Tomorrow [practice] is huge as far as getting the balance right and getting it to turn and hit the corners the way we want to.” NASCAR.com
“I’ve always been kind of decent at road racing, I thought – just alright, but like nothing special – kind of decent,” said Kahne. “Last year, the car was really good. We kind of figured some things out that I was looking for, that I needed to race better, but we’ve always qualified decent, and I think we should have a good shot to run up front again this weekend, if we can get that balance that we had last year.”
“It doesn’t weigh as much as a Brickyard win or a Daytona 500 win or even winning at Bristol to me was more of a resume-builder,” Johnson said of being 0-16 on road courses for his Sprint Cup career. “This is just an irritation. I know I can do this. I get in other road course cars and I’m plenty fast and competitive. I’ve run good at times in the Cup car on road courses, so I know I have it in me. I just need to figure out how to do it over the course of 90 laps. So it’s more of an irritation. Sure, it would be good for my resume, but it’s not like I feel there’s a void or something major missing.” FOXNews.com
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NASCAR Sprint Cup: Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Infineon Raceway - Race Line-Up
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