By Nathan Butler – NathanButler@OnPitRoad.com
CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Kyle Busch will lead the field to the green flag in the 28th annual Sprint All-Star Race at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
Busch, who has started on the pole twice before, including last year in the All-Star event, turned a fast lap of 119.112 seconds, which included four-tire stop.
“We love coming out here and having this kind of format where the team is involved and the pit stop. We laid down a good lap I felt like, trying to get the most out of the car. We were trying to get the most out of coming down pit road,” said Busch.
“Overall, it was a real good day, so we’re looking forward to being able to carry on for tomorrow.”
However, starting on the pole might not be a good thing. In fact, winning the pole has proved to be a bit of a curse. The last pole winner to win the All-Star race was Davey Allison in 1992.
Ryan Newman, Denny Hamlin, Greg Biffle, Kevin Harvick, Jimmie Johnson, Paul Menard, Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart and Regan Smith rounded out the top-10.
Newman, who will join Busch on the front row, was pretty happy after his All-Star qualifying run.
“It was the best I ever got to pit road during an All-Star qualifying session like that. Just really proud of the guys they had a good pit stop,” said Newman.
“I felt like everything was pretty clean. Our car has pretty good balance. We didn’t have a good practice session so hopefully the Tornados Chevrolet will be up front at the start and the finish of the All-Star Race.”
Biffle, the fastest Ford in Friday’s qualifying session, lost valuable time off of a pole run when he couldn’t get his car going on pit road after his stop.
“The car was pretty good on the track. I just couldn’t get going on pit road. I don’t know why. I practiced three times today and the car just spun going forward. I don’t know why it did that, but it did an that cost us a lot of time. Those are precious seconds almost ticking by when you can’t get going. We only missed the top by six-tenths, but it was pretty good time for us,” said Biffle.
The 28th annual All-Star Race is split of four 20-lap segments, and a final 10-lap shootout for a chance to win the 1-million dollar purse.
Starting Lineup:
1. Kyle Busch
2. Ryan Newman
3. Denny Hamlin
4. Greg Biffle
5. Kevin Harvick
6. Jimmie Johnson
7. Paul Menard
8. Jeff Gordon
9. Tony Stewart
10. Regan Smith
11. Trevor Bayne
12. Clint Bowyer
13. Carl Edwards
14. David Ragan
15. Matt Kenseth
16. Mark Martin
17. Kurt Busch
18. Marcos Ambrose
19. Brad Keselowski
20. Kasey Kahne
