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Kurt Busch roars to pole for Saturday’s Duck Commander 500 at Texas

Kurt Busch texas 1 2015 getty

Kurt Busch roared to the pole position Friday evening for Saturday night’s Duck Commander 500 at Texas Motor Speedway, taking the top spot with a speed of 193.847 mph.

It was Busch’s second pole of the season, having earned the No. 1 spot three weeks ago at Fontana. What makes two poles so early in the season all the more impressive is it was only his fourth qualifying effort of 2015, having missed the first three races while on NASCAR suspension.

“Everything is so tight in qualifying, and I wanted to try and run the same each time out,” Busch told Fox Sports 1. “Everybody chipped in. It’s all about getting this little extra and we did.”

This is Busch’s 25th career start at TMS. He has one win, three top-5 and 13 top-10 finishes. This is also his first career pole there.

Busch has a great wing man to start Saturday’s race, sharing the front row with Stewart-Haas Racing teammate Kevin Harvick, who notched his best Cup start at the 1.5-mile high-speed TMS oval with a run of 193.722 mph.

Also of note, eight of the top-12 qualified cars are powered Hendrick Motorsports engines.

“The car’s really good,” said Harvick, who has never won a Cup race at TMS. “We stuck to our plan. … You look at that top-12 lineup and all the Hendrick engines and chassis that are in the top-12 is really impressive, so I’m real excited about tomorrow.”

Chevrolets took 12 of the top 15 spots, while Ford had the other three positions. The highest-placing Toyota driver was Carl Edwards, who qualified 16th.

Here’s how Friday’s qualifying played out:

1 Kurt Busch … 193.847 mph
2 Kevin Harvick … 193.722
3 Brad Keselowski … 193.195
4 Kasey Kahne … 192.933
5 Jimmie Johnson … 192.424
6 Joey Logano … 192.369
7 Ryan Newman … 192.253
8 Paul Menard … 192.109
9 Kyle Larson … 192.048
10 Jamie McMurray … 191.721
11 Tony Stewart … 191.489
12 Jeff Gordon … 189.547
13 Ryan Blaney … 192.273
14 Austin Dillon … 192.267
15 Martin Truex Jr. … 192.232
16 Carl Edwards … 191.973
17 Matt Kenseth … 191.918
18 Denny Hamlin … 191.884
19 Greg Biffle … 191.768
20 Casey Mears … 191.421
21 Danica Patrick … 191.096
22 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. … 190.880
23 Trevor Bayne … 190.523
24 Justin Allgaier … 190.483
25 Dale Earnhardt Jr. … 192.068
26 AJ Allmendinger … 191.966
27 Clint Bowyer … 191.639
28 Michael Annett … 191.530
29 Sam Hornish Jr. … 191.483
30 David Ragan … 191.455
31 Cole Whitt … 191.367
32 Aric Almirola … 191.340
33 Landon Cassill … 191.340
34 Alex Bowman … 191.245
35 Josh Wise … 190.988
36 Brett Moffitt … 190.894
37 Mike Bliss … Owner Points
38 David Gilliland … Owner Points
39 Michael McDowell … Owner Points
40 Chris Buescher … Owner Points
41 JJ Yeley … Owner Points
42 Matt DiBenedetto … Owner Points
43 Alex Kennedy … Owner Points

Did not qualify: Brendan Gaughan, Jeb Burton

Follow @JerryBonkowski