Kurt Busch led a sweep of the front two rows in qualifying for Stewart-Haas Racing when he took the pole for Sunday’s 1000Bulbs.com 500 at Talladega Superspeedway.
SHR’s Clint Bowyer, Kevin Harvick and Aric Almirola qualified second through fourth, respectively.
Busch’s speed of 195.804 mph earned his first career restrictor-plate track pole. It was his fifth pole of the season and 27th of his career.
“Doug Yates and those guys built so much quality power and you see it in four Stewart-Haas Fords. I’m really happy I got the fast one,” Busch said.
“We’re on the pole. This is my first restrictor-plate pole ever. It’s taken me 20 years but I got one.”
The last team to sweep the first four qualifying spots was Hendrick Motorsports in 2011.
Last week’s Dover winner Chase Elliott rounded out the top five.
Jimmie Johnson, Alex Bowman, William Byron, Kyle Busch and Denny Hamlin completed the first 10 qualifiers.
“The guys that qualified good are the ones you would expect to,” said Kyle Busch. “Not too bad all things considering. Hopefully its just good for the first stage to be able to be up front and hopefully we can stay up front, stay out of trouble and get some stage points up there early.”
Team Penske has six Talladega wins in the last eight races but failed to advance any car into the final round of qualification. Brad Keselowski (191.900), Ryan Blaney (191.731) and Joey Logano (191.386) will line up 18th through 20th, respectively.
David Starr failed to qualify for Sunday’s race.
