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Qualifying report

Kenseth leads Gibbs 1-2-3 in Kansas qualifying

Qualifying for the Hollywood Casino 400 was a matter of changing places — for Matt Kenseth and Kyle Busch.

Polesitter Matt Kenseth, Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota

Polesitter Matt Kenseth, Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota

Action Sports Photography

But Kenseth, who was the first driver back on Kansas Speedway for the final round, held on with a fast time of 28.112-seconds (192.089mph) for his 18th career Cup pole, his first of the season and the 13th overall for Toyota in 2016.

“Kyle had a lot of speed, if anyone was going to beat us it was him,” Kenseth said. “We just squeezed it out.”

Busch trailed his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate by 0.001-second (192.082mph) on Friday. He admitted the car bobbled in Turn 2. But despite losing the pole to his teammate, Busch said he's learned a lot about the 1.5-mile track since Kenseth joined JGR. 

"I’ve certainly used some of the things that we’ve talked about with all of my teammates in order to get better here,” said Busch, whose first top-five came in 2014 in his 15th start at Kansas. "Just looking and studying about technique and things that he does and being able to work on how Matt carries his car around the track and where he makes his speed and me trying to be able to do the same thing. A lot of it has just come through technique and just being able to mimic the things that he does and we’ve gotten a lot better at that.

"Certainly, our balance could have been a tick better in order to give me a little more security and feeling in order to go out there and run two-thousandths faster.”

Toyotas captured the top four positions with Carl Edwards (191.015mph) third and Martin Truex Jr. (191.015mph).

“Great recovery,” said Edwards, who ran 10th in Round 2 and had to run an extra lap in the first session. “That’s what I’m talking about, that was a championship effort.”

Alex Bowman was fifth (190.315mph) followed by Joey Logano (190.221mph), Denny Hamlin (190.188mph), Brad Keselowski (190.087mph), Ryan Newman (189.927mph), AJ Allmendinger (189.840mph), Kevin Harvick (189.580mph) and Austin Dillon (189.567mph).

The last time Toyota had three cars run 1-2-3 was at Bristol Motor Speedway in August.

“It’s nice to get a pole,” Kenseth said. "I feel like our qualifying hasn’t been nearly as good this year as it has been in the rest of the years I’ve been at JGR. We barely got it – it was by a thousandth, or something like that. Obviously our Camrys have been fast. Our Camry has been driving good and all the right adjustments. Round one we were pretty decent, it was off a little bit and then round three it was just right. We almost got beat, but it was as good of a lap as we were going to run. They did a good job today."

Round 2

Kyle Busch and Matt Kenseth swapped spots in Round 2 with Busch topping the leader board with a lap of 192.130mph.

Kenseth was second (191.198mph) followed by Kevin Harvick (190.867mph) and Joey Logano (190.691mph). Three non-Chasers, Alex Bowman (190.503mph), Ryan Newman (190.456mph) and AJ Allmendinger (190.349mph) — all Chevys —ran fifth through seventh.

Martin Truex Jr. (190.328mph), Austin Dillon (190.295mph), Carl Edwards (190.087mph), Denny Hamlin (190.027mph) and Brad Keselowski (190.014mph) rounded out the top 12 that transferred.

Chase Elliott, who said he needed his car to turn better, was the first Chaser out with a lap of 189.954mph). Kurt Busch and Jimmie Johnson were the other two Chase contenders not advancing to the final round.

“We made some adjustments and the car got down on the splitter,” Johnson said. “It just didn’t work out.”

Round 1

The Toyotas of Matt Kenseth and Kyle Busch battled for the top speed in Round 1 of time trials.

Kenseth won out with a lap of 190.826mph with Busch second, 190.335mph. Six Chasers led the field with Joey Logano third (190.335mph), Carl Edwards fourth (189.800mph), Kevin Harvick (189.773mph) and Kurt Busch (189.727mph).

Tony Stewart, the first non-Chaser, was seventh fast (189.720mph), followed by Martin Truex Jr., Danica Patrick, Jimmie Johnson, Ryan Blaney and Brad Keselowski. Chase contenders Denny Hamlin, Austin Dillon and Chase Elliott ran 16th, 18th and 23rd, respectively.

Ricky Stenhouse Jr., who was the fastest Ford in first practice, triggered flag at 14:41:33 when he brushed the wall coming out of Turn 4. Stenhouse’s lap of 185.816 mph was fast enough for 33rd. After repairs, Stenhouse returned to the track and recorded a lap of 188.752mph — 22nd quick.

Thirteen minutes into the session, Clint Bowyer bounced off the wall. His spotter Brett Griffin told the driver, “You were getting all of it before that.” Bowyer, who posted a lap of 187.246mph was running in the top 15 at the time. He ended up 31st.

Aric Almirola made a last-minute attempt to knock Kyle Larson out of 24th-place but his lap of 184.824mph was only 35th quick.

Cla#DriverManufacturerTimeGapMph
1 20  Matt Kenseth  Toyota 28.112   192.089
2 18  Kyle Busch  Toyota 28.113 0.001 192.082
3 19  Carl Edwards  Toyota 28.270 0.158 191.015
4 78  Martin Truex Jr.  Toyota 28.304 0.192 190.786
5 88  Alex Bowman  Chevrolet 28.374 0.262 190.315
6 22  Joey Logano  Ford 28.388 0.276 190.221
7 11  Denny Hamlin  Toyota 28.393 0.281 190.188
8 2  Brad Keselowski  Ford 28.408 0.296 190.087
9 31  Ryan Newman  Chevrolet 28.432 0.320 189.927
10 47  A.J. Allmendinger  Chevrolet 28.445 0.333 189.840

CLICK HERE for complete starting lineup

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