Story Updated: 7:30 p.m ET
Brad Keselowski won the pole for Sunday’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Consumers Energy 400 at Michigan International Speedway.
Keselowski completed the season pole sweep at MIS for Team Penske when he posted a fast lap of 37.801 seconds, 190.471 mph. His teammate Joey Logano won the pole in June.
“I think the track was in really good shape,” Keselowski said. “I don’t know if there was anything that really favored up, mostly it was just the team doing a great job with the preparation and executing a flawless lap driving the car. Most of the credit goes to my team for sure.”
The pole is his second of the season and the 16th of his career.
Defending race winner Kevin Harvick was second fastest with a lap of 37.877 seconds, 190.089 mph.
“Track position is really important everywhere we go,” Harvick said. “Coming to Michigan it is of the utmost importance so this is a really good start to the weekend for us.”
Hendrick Motorsports teammates William Byron and Alex Bowman qualified third and fourth, respectively.
“There’s not a lot of driver skill or driver anything involved in that one,” Bowman said. “You just hold it wide open and it’s really a showcase of the car that the team brought. I’m very proud of that. I’m excited to go racing.”
Clint Bowyer rounded out the top five to give Ford three drivers in the top five. A Ford driver has won the last three races at Michigan.
“We know the Mustangs are going to be fast at this track and we have them wound up,” Bowyer said. “Starting inside the top five and it was down to the thousandths of a second. Coulda, woulda, shoulda in a lot of ways.”
Chase Elliott, Ryan Blaney, Joey Logano, Paul Menard and Jimmie Johnson rounded out the top 10.
“It was a good recovery from where we started the day,” said Logano, who led 163 laps en route to the win earlier this summer at MIS. “We unloaded a little far off. We were just a little too tight when we fired off today and it was hard to find the right balance for today because we just didn’t unload quick.”
Richard Childress Racing’s Austin Dillon and Daniel Henric had qualified seventh and 11th, respectively, but NASCAR disallowed their qualifying speeds after the two cars were found with unapproved alternators. Read More
Denny Hamlin was the top qualifying Toyota driver in 14th.
Series points leader Kyle Busch will start 22nd.
