LONG POND — It is becoming more difficult to find words to describe the roll Kyle Busch is on.
Amazing. Remarkable. Incredible. Unbelievable.
Heck, even Busch is having a hard time explaining it.
A winner of three straight NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races — and four of the last five — Busch kept it going Friday by winning the pole for Sunday’s Windows 10 400 at Pocono Raceway.
His lap of 178.416 mph in 50.444 seconds in the No. 18 Toyota in the final round of knockout qualifying bumped rival Kevin Harvick from the top spot and gave Busch his 17th career pole and second at Pocono. The other came in June 2010.
Harvick’s lap of 178.168 mph in the No. 4 Chevrolet puts him second on the starting grid. Joey Logano qualified third in the No. 22 Ford at 177.837 mph. Austin Dillon was fourth in the No. 3 Chevrolet at 177.658 mph and Tony Stewart rounded out the top five in the No. 14 Chevrolet at 177.630 mph.
Busch’s story has been well-chronicled. He missed the first 11 races due to a broken right leg and left foot he suffered in a crash in the NASCAR Xfinity Series opener at Daytona in February. In the fifth race of his comeback, Busch won on the road course at Sonoma.
After finishing 17th at Daytona, he has reeled off consecutive victories at Kentucky, New Hampshire and Indianapolis. He is attempting to become the eighth driver in NASCAR’s modern era (since 1972) to win four straight races. Jimmie Johnson was the last in 2007.
“Why things have been sorting out this way, I don’t know,” Busch said. “I don’t know how to explain it.
“We’re just trying to ride that wave as long as it will carry us. Hopefully, it’s got 16 weeks left in it. It’s just amazing what we’re on.”
Even when he is off, Busch is on. He didn’t think he had a shot at winning the pole, ranking eighth after the first round and seventh after the second round.
But crew chief Adam Stevens and the team kept making adjustments, and they were able to get it right for the final round.
“We had good speed, but for how the car was driving it was kind of erratic,” Busch said. “But we seemed to get things calmed down a little bit. The car seems to be settling in, maybe I’m getting used to it.
“Hopefully (today), we’ll work on it a little more, get it fine-tuned and ready for Sunday.”
If Busch does win his fourth straight race, it would be his first victory at Pocono in his 22nd career start.
Another driver looking for his first Pocono win is Harvick. He placed second here in the last two races at the 2.5-mile triangular track.
During qualifying, Harvick was second-fastest after the first round (176.925 mph) and fastest in the second round (177.637).
“I feel like we definitely overachieved today and that was a good thing,” Harvick said. “It was just hard work by the guys on the team in making the right adjustments. We needed that last round to go like it did and run our best lap of the day and really start putting those pieces together and be able to hit the ground running when we get to Chicago (for the start of the Chase).”
Logano is also looking to get back to Victory Lane following his triumph in the season-opening Daytona 500. With six top-five finishes in the last seven races — including a fourth at Pocono in June — he believes he is getting close.
Things did not look good early, though. He was only 13th in the day’s lone practice session and 13th after the first round of qualifying.
“I’m so proud of what our team’s been doing lately,” Logano said. “The communication is there, the teamwork is there. During qualifying, all you have is the communication between the driver, crew chief and engineers and making the right decisions off of that. For me to say what I need and them to be able to pinpoint the adjustment that it takes to make it better takes a long time to build that chemistry up.”
Jeff Gordon qualified 10th in the No. 24 Chevrolet at 177.211 mph in his final race at Pocono. The track’s all-time wins leader (6) is retiring at the end of the season.
Martin Truex Jr., who won the June race at Pocono, qualified 13th in the No. 78 Chevrolet at 176.446 mph. Truex is trying to become the eighth driver to sweep both races in a season at Pocono.
“We really struggled for some reason in Turn 1,” Truex said. “Just can’t seem to get the balance right. We were either too tight or too loose no matter what we did. Not a big deal, though. I think we will be OK.”
Dale Earnhardt Jr., the defending race champion, qualified 15th at 176.339 mph in the No. 88 Chevrolet.
Two practice sessions are scheduled today, from 9-9:50 a.m. and 11:35 a.m. to 12:25 p.m.
Sunday, the Windows 10 400 is scheduled to get the green flag at 1:30 p.m.