With a blistering lap of 170.219 mph, Kasey Kahne backed up his practice pace by claiming pole Friday afternoon for this weekend’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Pocono Raceway. The pole run was the 15th of Kahne’s career and second here at the 2.5-mile track in Pennsylvania.
Although he got bested by Kahne, early pacesetter Jimmie Johnson had enough speed to finish second. Mark Martin, Regan Smith and Joe Nemechek completed the top five qualifiers in the session.
Behind the quartet of Chevrolets was Carl Edwards, Dale Earnhardt Jr., AJ Allmendinger, Scott Riggs and championship points leader Kyle Busch.
Kasey Kahne:
“We haven’t had a pole in a while and this whole team has been a great job. Even last week at Dover, there was nothing we could do. We got in a wreck and wasn’t much we could after that,” Kahne said.
“It’s hard to tell here what’s a good lap, but I knew I got around all three corners well and got some good straightaway speed.”
“The Charlotte test really got things going. We had a good Charlotte test and were doing well at Darlington, but I wrecked in qualifying and couldn’t use that car in the race,” Kahne said. “And then the momentum we’ve had since winning at Charlotte has been great.
“It’s been fun again. I’ve been doing a much better job of communicating with Kenny Francis (team director) and our team engineer. I think we will definitely have a car that can run in the top 10.”
More to come.
Bookmark to:
- Sprint Cup Top 12 and beyond heading into Pocono
- He keeps rollin’: Kyle Busch wins pole for Coca Cola 600
- Kasey Kahne tries to make it a Texas sweep
- Jeff Gordon wins the Nextel Cup pole in California
- Johnson wins Brickyard pole
That’s by boy! Great Job! Im glad to see him back on the pole.