LOUDON, N.H. – Kyle Busch had the opportunity to study what everybody else did in NASCAR Sprint Cup Series qualifying Friday at New Hampshire.
(Photo: Jeff Zelevansky/Getty Images for NASCAR)
Turns out Busch is one of those students that doesn’t need to study at all but can still ace the test.
Busch was the last of 44 drivers to go out in time trials and scored the pole in qualifying Friday for Sunday’s Lenox Industrial Tools 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
Busch said nothing he saw before he went out changed his mindset during his qualifying attempt.
“I don’t pay attention to what anybody else is doing,” Busch said. “It screws me up more times than it helps me. I didn’t watch anything. I was just concentrating on knowing where my marks were and trying to remember what I did in the [Sprint] Cup car because I went from [a Cup car] to [a Nationwide Series car] and back to the Cup car. I just had to put those thoughts in my mind about how to drive the car, what points I needed to look for and everything and make the most of the lap.”
The Joe Gibbs Racing driver toured the 1.058-mile oval in 28.548 seconds (133.417 mph). It was the ninth career pole in 276 Sprint Cup Series starts for Busch and his first at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in 15 events he has participated in at the track.
“We don’t have very many of them a year so this is certainly nice to get a pole out of the way,” Busch said. “… Definitely a great day for us. We unloaded with a really fast racecar right off the truck.”
Kasey Kahne will start on the outside pole after turning a lap of 28.551 seconds (133.403 mph).
“It felt great in practice today and it was just a little edgy getting into the corner,” Kahne said. “I tried to get a little more my second lap and about spun it into (turn) three so I had to just pull it in the pits. I didn’t get a second lap, but I felt like it was close to my first lap. It probably wouldn’t have beaten it, but it would have been pretty similar.”
Busch’s Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin was third fastest in qualifying with a lap of 28.552 seconds (133.399 mph).
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