Kyle Busch earns his first Pocono pole

By Reid Spencer

Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service

(June 4, 2010)

LONG POND, Pa. —Historically, Kyle Busch’s strong qualifying efforts at Pocono Raceway haven’t translated to excellence on race days.

After winning the Coors Light Pole Award for Sunday’s Gillette Fusion ProGlide 500, however, Busch hopes that trend is about to change.

Busch will make his 200th start in NASCAR’s Sprint Cup Series from the top spot, after turning a lap Friday in 53.102 seconds (169.485 mph) at the asymmetrical 2.5-mile triangular track. Busch edged Clint Bowyer (169.138 mph) and Dale Earnhardt Jr. (169.097 mph) for the pole.

Kurt Busch, winner of both events during speedweeks at Charlotte, qualified fourth at 168.963 mph, followed by Denny Hamlin (168.868 mph), a three-time Pocono winner. Tony Stewart, Juan Pablo Montoya, Kasey Kahne, Ryan Newman and Jeff Gordon will start from positions six through 10, respectively.

Busch, who won his first Pocono pole, has six previous top-10 starts to his credit at the Tricky Triangle but only two top-10 finishes and no wins.

“I think the biggest thing about the qualifying versus the racing here is that I can always be on top of the speed charts in practice,” Busch said. “I can throw a lap together, but to continually do that during a run, during tire fall-off, during loss of fuel and the tires getting old, you really have to change what’s going on.

“You can’t run the same lap times every single time. You actually fall off quite a bit, actually about a second over five laps, so you change quite a bit. I think that’s my biggest pitfall here, not being able to keep up with my car and the track at the same time. So maybe I can change that this time around.”

Cup points leader Kevin Harvick, who enters the race 29 points ahead Kyle Busch in second, qualified 22nd. Four-time defending series champion Jimmie Johnson will start 25th.

The time trials were a heartbreaker for Robby Gordon, who was nowhere near Pocono. Ted Musgrave attempted to qualify the No. 7 Toyota for Gordon, who was racing his off-road truck in the Baja 500 in Mexico . Musgrave, however, failed to make the race, as did Terry Cook in James Finch’s No. 09 Chevrolet.

Notes: Busch, who turned 25 on May 2, is the youngest driver to reach 200 starts in the Cup series. … Geoff Bodine will make his first Cup start since 2004, after posting the 40th fastest time in Tommy Baldwin’s No. 36 Chevrolet.