Brad Keselowski wins the pole for Chase race at Kansas Speedway

“I feel like I’ve got a stronger vehicle than when I won the championship”, Busch said during a stop last month at Crown Center’s Sea Life Aquarium.

Edwards, who switched from Roush Fenway Racing to Joe Gibbs Racing in the offseason, knew the chance his new ownership group was taking.

Although Edwards is in reasonably good shape post-Charlotte, he recognizes the potential pitfalls Sunday on the very fast Kansas track and the following week in the chaos that is Talladega.

Keselowski downplayed the importance of being able to pick a pit stall as the pole victor.

All 12 Chase drivers qualifying in the top 15.

Nonetheless, Keselowski will lead the field to the green in the No. 2 Ford on Sunday after turning a best lap of 195.503 miles per hour around the 1.5-mile Kansas Speedway in the third and final round of the knockout session.

A win here on Sunday guarantees a driver a free pass through Talladega and into the next Chase round so the competition to reach victory lane should be fierce, especially among the big name Chasers that need that victory badly. “As a team we’ll have to deal with it the best we can”. “We haven’t been able to get a whole lot of wins between all of us”. “But we were trying to work on it and we had a few pretty good laps I thought”. Going off recent stats, Gordon is the most likely to have a great run after averaging a tenth place finish in the last 15 events at Kansas and winning three races at the track including the inaugural race there.

Newman went out again and jumped to ninth; Aric Almirola moved into the final transfer spot. Last season, Busch seemed to put the Kansas demons behind him with a top five run and he will definitely need another strong performance to keep his hopes alive this year. The resulting suspension problems eventually caused a right front tire failure, and after hard contact with the wall, Kenseth retired from the race in 42nd place.

Statistically, the consistency Busch has shown this season bares that out. And make no mistake, there is no other track where Edwards would love to follow suit than Kansas Speedway. What we do and everybody at the shop does and everybody at JGR, what we do is go try to win these championships.

It was Keselowski’s 10th career pole and second of the season. He’s now sixth in the standings, a fairly safe spot.

Grubb gambled and helped deliver a fuel-mileage victory May 24 in the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, a win that virtually locked a then-points-challenged Edwards into the Chase for the Sprint Cup. Harvick led 53 laps, the second most, in the May race at Kansas on his way to finishing second, one of the many runner-up finishes he has had this season.

Timmy Hill was the only driver who failed to qualify.