On a “green” race track washed by a hard afternoon rain, Matt Kenseth laid down the best qualifying lap in the history of Darlington Raceway.
Touring the 1.366-mile egg-shaped circuit in 27.394 seconds (179.514 mph), Kenseth won the pole for Saturday night’s Southern 500, edging Jeff Gordon (178.861 mph) by a tenth of a second in a session that saw three-time defending Cup champion Jimmie Johnson wreck in Turn 2 on his first lap.
Ryan Newman (178.757 mph) qualified third, followed by Sam Hornish Jr. (178.744 mph) and rookie Joey Logano (178.549 mph). NASCAR.com
Kenseth’s hopes his fourth career pole — and first since Kansas in October 2005 — leads to a rebound in confidence.
He won the Daytona 500 and then the next week at Auto Club Speedway in Los Angeles. However, he’s just one top 10 finish in the past eight races.
To Kenseth’s surprise, his car held its line and led to the quickest lap in Darlington’s 60-season history.
“It’s the most confident I’ve been in my car since, I don’t know,” Kenseth said.
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NASCAR Sprint Cup Series: Darlington Raceway - Race Line-Up
Defending Darlington champion Kyle Busch, who swept last week’s Nationwide and Sprint Cup races at Richmond, will start 14th.
Brad Keselowski made it into his first Cup race since winning Talladega two week ago and starts 31st.
Jeremy Mayfield and Scott Speed failed to make the 43-car field.
Johnson, sixth in the points, had hoped a strong qualifying lap would end a run of bad races. He was 30th at Talladega and 36th a week ago at Richmond. The Associated Press
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