Kyle Busch wins pole for SFP 250 at Kansas Speedway

For the first time since 2011, Kyle Busch has won the pole for a Camping World Truck Series race as Busch scored the Coors Light pole for the 14th annual SFP 250 at Kansas Speedway with a lap of 30.181 seconds, 178.921 mph for a new track record. From 2011 to 2014, Busch has been a dominate force in the series with 12 wins in 31 starts.

“It was a game of a chicken there in not being the first one out,” Busch commented. “The truck’s handling changed a lot between sessions, but we were able to lay down a quick lap there. You got to be good here, but being a night race here it will be a little different. I think the race track will come to a lot of these trucks as it gets darker. Hopefully it’ll widen out as right now it’s too narrow and hopefully it widens out as the wider the groove, the more excitement for the fans.”

When the last session started, drivers waited till there was only two minutes and 34 seconds left on the clock before they went out as nobody wanted to be the first driver out due to wanting to be able to catch a toe off of the truck infront of them. Busch was one of the last in line to pull off and it paid off for the Las Vegas native.

Ryan Blaney had the plan to pull off in line with his Brad Keselowski Racing teammate, however Jeb Burton pulled up in between the pair and fooled that plan. Still, Blaney was able to qualify second for his third top 10 start of 2014 in the three races so far this year.

“No one wants to be first as to be fast, you need to get a good toe off of someone,” Blaney said. “The 13 hesitated a little bit and got in between us, and I feel I could’ve got a better toe off of my teammate than the 13.”

Johnny Sauter qualified third and feels the anticipation to get out at the right time gets a driver’s anxiety flowing.

“I think we timed it right there at the end,” he added. “Just got tight there and I had to burp it a little there and that was what cost me.”

Brian Ickler and Joey Logano rounded out the top five, followed by Jeb Burton, Austin Dillon, points leader Timothy Peters, Matt Crafton and Joey Coulter. German Quiroga, who switched to a back-up after a wreck in practice, qualified 17th.

There was one red flag during qualifying when Ben Kennedy would get loose and up into the wall, resulting in having to go to a back-up truck.

“I knew we had a free set-up but didn’t know that it would be that free,” Kennedy said. “The truck just broke loose – I saved it for a second – but by that time, you’re out of the rubber and trying to keep it out of the wall and unfortunately we didn’t. I hate it for the guys but we’re starting with a fresh start tonight so hopefully we can get up there.”

Also, Darrell Wallace Jr. ran into problems during qualifying as he started smoking during hte second round. A clip broke off the radiator and made a hole in the oil cooler. As a result, both parts were replaced and Wallace is set to race tonight.