Kurt Busch wins Southern 500 pole, new track record

Kurt Busch has been in position to win a pole position this season.

Back at Texas Motor Speedway in April, the elder Busch was on the pole until the final car left to qualify knocked him off the top spot.

That final car was his little brother Kyle.

Running a lap around the famed Darlington Raceway at nearly 182 mph, Busch shattered the previous track record set by Kasey Kahne in May, 2011 and knocked defending Southern 500 champion Jimmie Johnson off the top spot.

“When you set a track record, it’s something that you carry for a little while,” said Busch.

The pole was Busch’s first of the 2013 season and his second at Darlington Raceway.

“I slopped into a pole here as a rookie, I didn’t know what I was doing,” Busch said after winning the pole. “They told me to hold it wide-open in turn two….but they were kidding….but, I did it anyway.

It also marks the first time Busch’s Furniture Row Racing team’s first pole position since Joe Nemechek won a pole at Talladega back in 2008.

“These guys just have this confidence this weekend,” Busch said about his Furniture Row team who won their first–and so far only–Sprint Cup race with Regan Smith in the 2011 Southern 500.

“So, these guys–added in with some of my stupidity–holding it wide-open through turn two gave ourselves a pole and a track record.”

Kyle Busch, Kasey Kahne, Martin Truex Jr., Denny Hamlin, Matt Kenseth, Jeff Gordon, Greg Biffle, and Kevin Harvick round out the top-10 staters for Saturday night’s Southern 500.

With 43 cars attempting to make the 43-car field, no cars failed to qualify.

Bojangles Southern 500 Starting Lineup