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Defending Brickyard 400 winner Kyle Busch earns pole position

Defending Brickyard 400 winner Kyle Busch will begin his attempt for a second consecutive victory on Sunday from the pole.

Kyle Busch, Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota

Kyle Busch, Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota

NASCAR Media

Busch topped the final round of knock qualifying with an average single lap speed of 184.634 mph edging Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Carl Edwards (184.547 mph) for the top spot.

Tony Stewart, making his final Sprint Cup Series start of his career at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, will start third, Denny Hamlin fourth and Brad Keselowski fifth.

Completing the rest of the Top 12: Ryan Newman, Kevin Harvick, Martin Truex Jr., Jamie McMurray, Kyle Larson, Kurt Busch and Austin Dillon.

The pole is Busch’s second this season and 19th of his Cup career. He started ninth last season on his way to his first Brickyard victory.

“This means a lot to me and it means a lot to the guys on this team,” Busch said. “To be able to sit on the pole here at Indy is something that I’ve always wanted to do. (Crew chief) Adam Stevens and the guys gave me a great piece this weekend.

“You always have to make adjustments here in qualifying. You want to make sure you’re doing a good job of keeping up with the race track and the driver has to adjust, too, from round to round.

“Overall, our baseline was good this weekend. I have to thank Carl and Matt (Kenseth) for their work at the test here.”

Stewart said he wasn’t sure if he had something for the pole or not.

“I knew what we had the night before wasn’t very good. I'm really surprised,” he said. “I was worried about being too tight and cheated the last corner.”

Round 2

Jimmie Johnson, who was fastest in Round 1, failed to even advance out of Round 2 as Kyle Busch led the way with an average lap speed of 185.227 mph.

Stewart ended up second-fastest in the 10-minute session, Edwards third, Hamlin fourth and Keselowski fifth.

The remainder of the 12 drivers who advanced to the final round were Truex, McMurray, Larson, Newman, Dillon, Harvick and Kurt Busch.

Johnson ended up 11th-fastest, Elliott was 15th-fastest and Gordon 21st-fastest as no Hendrick Motorsports drivers advanced to the final round.

“That’s all we got – unfortunately,” Johnson said after his qualifying run on his team radio.

Among those who also failed to advance included Joey Logano, Matt Kenseth, Ryan Blaney and Danica Patrick.

After her last-minute attempt failed to advance, Patrick said over his radio, “That (expletive) sucked.”

Round 1

Johnson led the way in the first 20-minute session, setting the pace with an average single lap speed of 1845.816 mph, just edging out Kyle Busch.

Keselowski was third-fastest, Edwards fourth and Dillon was a surprising fifth. Rookie Chase Elliott (seventh) also ended up in the Top 10.

Gordon, filling in for Dale Earnhardt Jr., advanced to the second round with the 15th-fastest speed. Hendrick driver Kasey Kahne failed to advance with the 26th-fastest speed.

Among the others who also failed to advance to Round 2 were A.J. Allmendinger, David Ragan, Aric Almirola, Clint Bowyer and Casey Mears.

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