Kurt Busch is in a great position for this weekend's Foxwoods Resort Casino 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway after winning his third NASCAR Monster Energy Cup Series pole of the year.
Busch is still looking for his first win of the season, but with three top-fives and 10 top-10s, he has been in the running all year long. Friday's qualifying was just another example of how well he has been driving.
"I like the way we made the right changes through each of the rounds and we stuck to a game plan," Busch told NBCSN. "That's exactly what you hope to have each time you go to qualifying."
NASCAR SCHEDULE: Dates, times, TV info
Martin Truex Jr., who is coming off of his second consecutive win at Kentucky, will start second Sunday (2 p.m. ET, NBCSN).
"I just missed Turn 1 just slightly there in that last run on the first lap, but overall it was a solid day," Truex said. "We had a decent practice — a short practice, you know, because we waited a little bit for the VHT (traction compound) to kind of get run in, and we went out there and ran and were probably a little bit off further on balance more than we needed to be at the end of practice.
"So made some changes for qualifying, and the guys did a good job of getting it right and we were close. So (a) couple thousandths, a few inches here or there in a different spot on the race track and might have been able to make it up, but a solid effort for us, and we can go get them on Sunday from second."
Kyle Busch, who has five wins this season, will start third.
Kevin Harvick, who won at Phoenix and finished fifth at Richmond, two tracks that are similar to New Hampshire's 1.058-mile track, will start 14th.
(Material from the NASCAR Wire Service was used in this report.)
NASCAR at New Hampshire: Starting lineup for the Foxwoods Resort Casino 301
Position, car number, driver, manufacturer, speed
1. (41) Kurt Busch, Ford, 133.591 mph.
2. (78) Martin Truex Jr., Toyota, 133.502 mph.
3. (18) Kyle Busch, Toyota, 133.431 mph.
4. (11) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 133.361 mph.
5. (12) Ryan Blaney, Ford, 132.720 mph.
6. (2) Brad Keselowski, Ford, 132.715 mph.
7. (20) Erik Jones, Toyota, 132.674 mph.
8. (88) Alex Bowman, Chevrolet, 132.618 mph.
9. (19) Daniel Suarez, Toyota, 132.581 mph.
10. (9) Chase Elliott, Chevrolet, 132.462 mph.
11. (24) William Byron #, Chevrolet, 132.383 mph.
12. (21) Paul Menard, Ford, 132.190 mph.
13. (10) Aric Almirola, Ford, 132.586 mph.
14. (4) Kevin Harvick, Ford, 132.554 mph.
15. (14) Clint Bowyer, Ford, 132.402 mph.
16. (47) AJ Allmendinger, Chevrolet, 132.379 mph.
17. (3) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 132.259 mph.
18. (31) Ryan Newman, Chevrolet, 132.200 mph.
19. (22) Joey Logano, Ford, 132.094 mph.
20. (42) Kyle Larson, Chevrolet, 132.039 mph.
21. (48) Jimmie Johnson, Chevrolet, 131.925 mph.
22. (1) Jamie McMurray, Chevrolet, 131.738 mph.
23. (17) Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Ford, 131.447 mph.
24. (37) Chris Buescher, Chevrolet, 131.238 mph.
25. (13) Ty Dillon, Chevrolet, 131.247 mph.
26. (95) Kasey Kahne, Chevrolet, 130.954 mph.
27. (43) Bubba Wallace #, Chevrolet, 130.860 mph.
28. (32) Matt DiBenedetto, Ford, 130.783 mph.
29. (34) Michael McDowell, Ford, 130.568 mph.
30. (38) David Ragan, Ford, 130.532 mph.
31. (6) Matt Kenseth, Ford, 130.483 mph.
32. (15) Ross Chastain(i), Chevrolet, 129.213 mph.
33. (72) Corey LaJoie, Chevrolet, 129.151 mph.
34. (00) Landon Cassill, Chevrolet, 129.134 mph.
35. (99) Kyle Weatherman, Chevrolet, 127.577 mph.
36. (51) BJ McLeod(i), Chevrolet, 127.555 mph.
37. (23) Blake Jones, Toyota, 124.556 mph.
# Rookie.
(i) Ineligible for series points.