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Kansas City, Kan. • Joe Gibbs Racing made another big statement in qualifying at Kansas Speedway on Friday.
The dominant Sprint Cup team this season, JGR swept the top three spots for the second race in the round of 12 of the Chase. Matt Kenseth will start on the pole after his lap of 192.089 mph, Kyle Busch will start alongside him and Carl Edwards will start right behind them in third.
Throw in Martin Truex Jr., whose Furniture Row team has an alliance with the Gibbs boys, and there will be quite a Toyota presence leading the field to the green flag Sunday.
"Our cars are pretty fast this weekend but anything could happen, as we saw last weekend," said Kenseth, who won at Kansas the last time he sat on the pole in 2013. "We have to go 400 miles on Sunday. Hopefully we can stay up front and be in the mix."
Most of the Chase contenders were in the mix in the final round of qualifying.
Joey Logano will try to win the Kansas race for the third straight time for the sixth spot, while Denny Hamlin gave JGR another strong qualifying effort with seventh. Brad Keselowski will start eighth, Kevin Harvick will start 11th and Austin Dillon will roll off in 12th.
"We have a decent starting spot. We'll get a good stall from there," Logano said. "Our team's got confidence, for sure. We had a very fast car last weekend at Charlotte."
The winner last week, Jimmie Johnson, struggled with a tight car in qualifying and will start 21st on Sunday. Chase Elliott will start 13th and Kurt Busch will start 15th as they try to take the pressure off the crapshoot known as Talladega by advancing in the Chase with a win.
Edwards had a lousy first attempt in the opening round of qualifying, and needed a last-ditch second effort to make it through. He posted the fourth-fastest lap with about 2 minutes left in the second round, then had a lap of 191.015 in the third round. —
Lineup
Hollywood Casino 400
Friday's qualifying; race Sunday At Kansas Speedway
Kansas City, Kan.
(Car numbers in parentheses)
1. (20) Matt Kenseth, Toyota, 192.089 mph.
2. (18) Kyle Busch, Toyota, 192.082.
3. (19) Carl Edwards, Toyota, 191.015.
4. (78) Martin Truex Jr., Toyota, 190.786.
5. (88) Alex Bowman, Chevrolet, 190.315.
6. (22) Joey Logano, Ford, 190.221.
7. (11) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 190.188.
8. (2) Brad Keselowski, Ford, 190.087.
9. (31) Ryan Newman, Chevrolet, 189.927.
10. (47) AJ Allminger, Chevrolet, 189.840.
11. (4) Kevin Harvick, Chevrolet, 189.580.
12. (3) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 189.567.
13. (24) Chase Elliott, Chevrolet, 189.954.
14. (14) Tony Stewart, Chevrolet, 189.940.
15. (41) Kurt Busch, Chevrolet, 189.773.
16. (27) Paul Menard, Chevrolet, 189.760.
17. (21) Ryan Blaney, Ford, 189.540.
18. (17) Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Ford, 189.387.
19. (10) Danica Patrick, Chevrolet, 189.241.
20. (5) Kasey Kahne, Chevrolet, 189.201.
21. (48) Jimmie Johnson, Chevrolet, 188.976.
22. (16) Greg Biffle, Ford, 188.930.
23. (1) Jamie McMurray, Chevrolet, 188.094.
24. (42) Kyle Larson, Chevrolet, 186.034.
25. (6) Trevor Bayne, Ford, 188.376.
26. (7) Regan Smith, Chevrolet, 187.669.
27. (83) Matt DiBenedetto, Toyota, 187.578.
28. (23) David Ragan, Toyota, 187.513.
29. (13) Casey Mears, Chevrolet, 187.441.
30. (34) Chris Buescher, Ford, 187.331.
31. (15) Clint Bowyer, Chevrolet, 187.246.
32. (44) Brian Scott, Ford, 186.819.
33. (95) Michael McDowell, Chevrolet, 186.419.
34. (38) Landon Cassill, Ford, 185.052.
35. (43) Aric Almirola, Ford, 184.824.
36. (55) Cole Whitt, Chevrolet, 183.163.
37. (46) Michael Annett, Chevrolet, 181.898.
38. (32) Joey Gase, Ford, 180.560.
39. (98) Reed Sorenson, Toyota, 180.403.
40. (30) Josh Wise, Chevrolet, 179.850.