Kenseth Comes On Late to Win NASCAR Cup Pole

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RICHMOND, VA – RIS – Matt Kenseth came to life in the third round of knock-out qualifying to win the pole position for Sunday’s Toyota Owners 400 at Richmond International Raceway.  Kenseth posted a lap of 121.076 mph in the final round to seal the first starting position.

“We had enough speed in our Circle K Toyota Camry that we only had to do one lap each of the first two rounds to get us into the third round, and we improved a little bit the second lap (in the final round). It was a good qualifying effort for us. Feels good to be on the pole.

 “This year has not been a good year for us, obviously, so far,” Kenseth said. “We finished strong at Bristol, but we didn’t get to qualify because of the rain, and that put us in the middle of the pack–there and Martinsville.

“We haven’t been getting any stage points. We’re buried in the points back there and we finally got a decent finish last week, so hopefully this week we can start up front, stay up front and hopefully collect some of the stage points. But most importantly we’re in the mix for a win at the end of the day.”

 Martin Truex Jr. (120.681 mph) will start third, followed by Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (120.471 mph) and Joey Logano (120.380 mph).

It was the third second-place qualifying effort of the season for Blaney, who also put the No. 21 Wood Brothers Ford on the front row at Phoenix and Texas.

We weren’t great the first round but kept getting steps better each round, which we’ve done a really good job of this year,” Blaney said. “I thought that’s where we struggled a lot last year. We didn’t improve last year, we would go backwards. This year we’re improving round-to-round.

Both Kenseth and Blaney saved their fastest laps for the final round. The same couldn’t be said of Logano, who ran the fastest lap of the afternoon (121.468 mph) in the second round but couldn’t sustain his speed in the third.

“We just lost a little bit there the last run,” said Logano who tied Kevin Harvick for the fastest lap in the opening round at 120.870 mph. “We got loose into (Turns) 3 and 4, missed it the first lap and did the same exact thing the second lap.

“It’s so frustrating when you win the first two rounds and the one that pays the money, you’re not there. That’s always frustrating. I guess we have decent speed in our car… it is just frustrating. I don’t know what else to say. It just sucks”.

Dale Earnhardt, Jr., who announced his retirement at the end of 2017, will start 12th.  He made the final round of qualifying, but couldn’t run a lap faster to move up in the starting order.

Ron Fleshman

RIS NASCAR Editor.  Has been with RIS since the middle 90's. Writes on each of the three main series of NASCAR.

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Volume 2017, Issue 4, Posted 1:12 AM, 04.29.2017