Keselowski wins pole for Sprint Cup race at Kansas

Keselowski won the pole for the Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway Friday afternoon.

“This is usually one of my worst tracks, at least for qualifying”, Keselowski said, “so that’s a testament to our team”.

Eleven of 12 Chase for the Sprint Cup contenders posted times in the top 20 – the exception being Kevin Harvick, who was 27th on the speed chart with a lap of 191.605 miles per hour. “Somebody said there was something with the 2 and they lose a pit pick for a few reason, so really we’ll get that first pit stall, which will be huge for Sunday”. Carl Edwards will start on the front row with Keselowski, but Edwards will get first choice of pits stalls.

For the record, Keselowski’s favorite cheesecake topping is strawberry. “But we made it through pretty well”.

Keselowski is firmly in the middle of the pack heading into second of three races in this round, and a victory would give him an automatic berth in the eight-driver elimination round. “We’ll make the most of it. It is nice to be fast this week”.

All are still in the championship race.

Keselowski, who won here in 2011, is now eighth in the Sprint Cup point standings after finishing ninth in last week’s Bank of America 500. “We haven’t been able to get a whole lot of wins between all of us”.

The Xfinity takes two weeks off before returning November 7 at Texas Motor Speedway. The trucks race again October. 24 at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway.