Stewart Claims pole in Charlotte

Tony Stewart
Rhonda McCole/AR1.com

Tony Stewart knocked Matt Kenseth out of the top spot to score his first NASCAR Sprint Cup Series pole of the season in Thursday night’s qualifying session for Saturday night’s Bank of America 500 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Stewart wheeled his no. 14 Mobile 1 Chevrolet to a lap of 28.131 at 191.959 mph to capture his 13th career Coors Light Pole Award and his first ever at Charlotte Motor Speedway

“It has definitely been a good start to the weekend," said Stewart. “I felt like was had a good pick up (from practice) and definitely had a really good lap, but you sit there after that lap and felt like hopefully we had something that was going to be a top five or six run there, but it was definitely better than we thought after we got out of that car."

Kenseth held onto second, followed by Carl Edwards, A.J. Allmendinger and Greg Biffle.

Kenseth was the 32nd driver to take to the track and dropped Ryan Newman from the pole with a lap of 28.137 at 191.918 mph, only to see Stewart top him just four drivers later.

“I left some out there," said Kenseth. “I wish I could do it again. I wish someone would beat me by more because I wouldn’t feel bad about leaving half-a-tenth or something out there, but it was a good solid lap."

Stewart was 11th-fastest in the final practice on Thursday afternoon, with Kasey Kahne running the fastest lap at 191.455 mph.

As the qualifying session stretched into the early evening, the speeds didn’t pick up as much as many expected, with the pole changing hands six times in a matter of minutes, with the top five qualifying times separated by just a five one-hundredths of a second.

“I don’t know why a lot of guys didn’t pick up (speed)," said Stewart. “There were guys that broke even or may have barely picked up a little bit or lost a little bit….and that’s is not what you normally see here. You normally see a large, pick up from practice speeds to qualifying in the evening here."

“I expected the same thing," said Edwards. “I thought the times would be a lot faster. I think the speeds were faster in practice because the temperature was lower and we had some cloud cover, so those are still really fast times, but we didn’t see that huge change from practice to qualifying, I believe, because it wasn’t blistering hot out there during practice."

Newman, Paul Menard, Kahne, Jimmie Johnson and Trevor Bayne rounded out the top five. Josh Wise, Scott Speed and Geoff Bodine failed to qualify for the event.

Lineup

POS CAR DRIVER MAKE SPONSOR SPEED TIME BEHIND
1 14 Tony Stewart Chevrolet Mobil 1 / Office Depot 191.959 28.131 Leader
2 17 Matt Kenseth Ford Fluidmaster 191.918 28.137 -0.006
3 99 Carl Edwards Ford Aflac "Now Hiring" 191.870 28.144 -0.013
4 43 A.J. Allmendinger Ford Best Buy 191.768 28.159 -0.028
5 16 Greg Biffle Ford 3M "Give Kids A Smile" 191.741 28.163 -0.032
6 39 Ryan Newman Chevrolet Cookies for Kids' Cancer 191.585 28.186 -0.055
7 27 Paul Menard Chevrolet CertainTeed / Menards 191.462 28.204 -0.073
8 4 Kasey Kahne Toyota Red Bull 191.394 28.214 -0.083
9 48 Jimmie Johnson Chevrolet Lowe's / Chevy 100th Anniversay 191.340 28.222 -0.091
10 21 Trevor Bayne Ford Motorcraft / Quick Lane Tire & Auto Center 191.259 28.234 -0.103
11 6 David Ragan Ford UPS Freight 191.002 28.272 -0.141
12 9 Marcos Ambrose Ford Stanley / Bostitch 191.002 28.272 -0.141
13 5 Mark Martin Chevrolet GoDaddy.com / Chevy 100th Anniversary 190.900 28.287 -0.156
14 29 Kevin Harvick Chevrolet Jimmy John's Gourmet Sandwiches 190.894 28.288 -0.157
15 88 Dale Earnhardt Jr. Chevrolet Amp Energy / National Guard / Chevy 100th Anniversary 190.833 28.297 -0.166
16 20 Joey Logano Toyota The Home Depot 190.820 28.299 -0.168
17 11 Denny Hamlin Toyota FedEx Express 190.799 28.302 -0.171
18 56 Martin Truex Jr. Toyota NAPA Auto Parts 190.638 28.326 -0.195
19 33 Clint Bowyer Chevrolet Cheerios / Hamburger Helper 190.611 28.330 -0.199
20 22 Kurt Busch Dodge Pennzoil Ultra 190.570 28.336 -0.205
21 78 Regan Smith Chevrolet Furniture Row Companies 190.429 28.357 -0.226
22 47 Bobby Labonte Toyota Lance Snacks / Tom's Snacks 190.255 28.383 -0.252
23 24 Jeff Gordon Chevrolet Drive to End Hunger / Chevy 100th Anniversay 190.007 28.420 -0.289
24 13 Casey Mears Toyota GEICO 189.727 28.462 -0.331
25 18 Kyle Busch Toyota M&M's 189.540 28.490 -0.359
26 2 Brad Keselowski Dodge Miller Lite 189.520 28.493 -0.362
27 1 Jamie McMurray Chevrolet Bass Pro Shops / Arctic Cat 189.401 28.511 -0.380
28 31 Jeff Burton Chevrolet Caterpillar 189.082 28.559 -0.428
29 00 David Reutimann Toyota Aaron's Dream Machine 188.923 28.583 -0.452
30 51 Landon Cassill Chevrolet Thank A Teacher Today / Security Benefit 188.851 28.594 -0.463
31 83 Brian Vickers Toyota Red Bull 188.772 28.606 -0.475
32 42 Juan Montoya Chevrolet Target 188.725 28.613 -0.482
33 34 David Gilliland Ford Tastykake 188.600 28.632 -0.501
34 55 Travis Kvapil Ford Ingersoll Rand 188.271 28.682 -0.551
35 36 Dave Blaney Chevrolet Golden Corral 188.239 28.687 -0.556
36 30 David Stremme Chevrolet Inception Motorsports 187.918 28.736 -0.605
37 66 Michael McDowell Toyota HP Racing LLC 187.454 28.807 -0.676
38 38 J.J. Yeley Ford Long John Silver's 187.383 28.818 -0.687
39 87 Joe Nemechek Toyota AMFMEnergy.com / Pellet & Wood Stoves 187.311 28.829 -0.698
40 71 Andy Lally* Ford Interstate Moving Services 186.657 28.930 -0.799
41 71 Hermie Sadler+ Ford Susan G. Komen for the Cure 185.676 29.083 -0.952
42 32 Mike Bliss+ Ford Street King 185.440 29.120 -0.989
43 7 Robby Gordon Dodge Speed Energy / Harris Teeter 186.303 28.985 -0.854
Did Not Qualify
44 135 Geoffrey Bodine Chevrolet Luke & Associates 186.245 28.994 -0.863
45 46 Scott Speed Ford www. order greenstuff.com 186.207 29.000 -0.869
46 37 Josh Wise Ford Max Q Motorsports 185.382 29.129 -0.998

+ Set by Owner Points
* Denotes Rookie

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