Matt Kenseth Scores First Charlotte Pole

Matt Kenseth

Streeter Lecka/Getty Images

Matt Kenseth collected his second pole of the season in Thursday night's qualifying session for Sunday's 56^th running of the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Kenseth wheeled his no. 20 Toyota to a top lap of 27.799 second (194.252 mph) in the third and final round, bumping his teammate Carl Edwards who briefly held the top spot.

Joey Logano took the outside pole with a lap of 28.003 seconds (192.836 mph) in the no.22 Ford, while Edwards fell to third on the grid, clocking in at 28.016 seconds (192.733 mph). Greg Biffle and Denny Hamlin rounded out the top five.

Kenseth's pole was the 15^th of his Sprint Cup career and his first ever at Charlotte, topping his previous best start of second scored in October 2011.

The last time Kenseth won a pole was at Bristol back on April19, where he led 47 laps en route to his first victory of the season.

"They asked me before qualifying if I thought I had a shot at the pole and I was like, I don't know," said Kenseth. "I said that I thought we already hit our quota for the year from Bristol. I wasn't really expecting to get another one. We doubled up."

Charlotte holds a lot of memories for Kenseth, who scored his first-career win here in the Coca-Cola 600 back in 2000, joining an exclusive club of drivers such as Bobby Labonte and Jeff Gordon who have had their first career victory come at Charlotte.

"It's crazy that it's been that long," said Kenseth of his first win 15 years ago. "For a lot of us it's been a special race track. For me, it certainly has been. I made my first XFINITY Series start here, first test I ever did in a big car was here and won my first Cup race here. I've had some good races here and had a lot of great memories. The 600 has always been my favorite event or favorite race on the circuit in a way just because it's always been so challenging.

"Things have certainly changed over the years, but it's always been challenging to run 600 miles and be decent in the beginning and be really good at the end when you need to be. I've always looked forward to this race and I always like racing at this race track."

Kenseth led the opening round of qualifying with Kevin Harvick taking the second spot, but in Round Two it was Harvick getting the better of Kenseth, moving to the top of the leaderboard while Kenseth fell to second.

Kenseth roared back in the final round to take the pole, but Harvick wasn't as lucky –falling to eighth in the final running order.

"We were just too tight," said Harvick. "The Budweiser/Jimmy John's Chevrolet team worked really hard all day and that gives us a decent starting position for Sunday. It's a long race and we will have to keep up with our adjustments to stay up front all race long."

Logano posted his 10^th top-10 start of the season and his career-best in 13 Sprint Cup starts at Charlotte. Logano has one previous Xfinity Series win here.

"It was a good effort for our team," said Logano. "You look at where we ended in practice I wasn't too worried about where our practice speeds were, but it wasn't very glamorous that's for sure.

"You want to make sure you start up front. Yes, it's 600 miles. Yes, we want to start up front. This race is long enough to recover, don't get me wrong, but it's a tough place to make it happen. It's one of the toughest places there is to pass. Having a good pit stall is gonna help that a lot."

Rounding out the top 10 qualifiers were Brad Keselowski, David Ragan, Harvick, Kyle Larson and Martin Truex, Jr.

None of the four Hendrick Motorsports cars advanced out of the second round, with Kasey Kahne forced out of the first round with a flat left-front tire. Jimmie Johnson, Dale Earnhardt, Jr. and Jeff Gordon – starting in his final Coca-Cola 600 – failed to advance from the second round.

Missing the race were Jeb Burton, Mike Bliss, Travis Kvapil, Jeff Green and Brendan Gaughan.

Lineup