Kurt Busch won the pole for the Bank of America Roval 400, the first Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race at the Charlotte Motor Speedway road course.
Busch earned his fourth pole of the season, and the 26th of his career, with a top speed of 106.868 mph around the 17-turn, 2.28-mile circuit.
“Any inaugural event is fun to go to,” Busch said of Sunday’s first-ever Cup race held on the hybrid circuit. “You try to learn as much as you can through testing and simulator work and watching others. We had plan going in. I’m really proud of (crew chief) Billy Scott and everyone on the No. 41 car coming into a unique situation like this. There is nothing ordinary about this. I’ve just tried to have fun with it.
“We have to go to work on race trim now. We have to make sure we set up our tires right for the long run.”
AJ Allmendinger will start outside Busch on the front row.
“Hell, I’ve got nothing to lose, I don’t have a job next year, so I let it hang out,” said Allmendinger who will be replaced at JTG Daugherty Racing next season by Ryan Preece.
“It’s going to be hard to pass,” Allmendinger said when asked what he expects in Sunday’s race.
Alex Bowman, Chase Elliott and Kyle Larson rounded out the top five.
Clint Bowyer, Jamie McMurray, Ryan Blaney and Chris Buescher completed the first 10 qualifiers.
Other playoff drivers in the field include Erik Jones (12th), Martin Truex, Jr. (13th), Kyle Busch (14th), Joey Logano (15th) Kevin Harvick (19th), Aric Almirola (20th), Austin Dillon (24th), Brad Keselowski (25th) and Denny Hamlin (27th).
However, Hamlin damaged his car in an incident during the qualifying session and will go to a back-up car. He enters the race last in the playoff standings and will now start at the rear of the field Sunday in his hopes to stay alive in the championship picture.
Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series teams will have a pair of practice sessions on Saturday to dial in their cars for Sunday’s final race of Round 1 in the playoffs.
