Kyle Busch tops brother Kurt to win pole in Atlanta

It is Kurt Busch’s first career pole at Atlanta Motor Speedway, and his first pole since Pocono Raceway last June.

After qualifying for the pole position Friday, NASCAR just came down on the reigning champion, Kyle Busch, had his potential path to a win at the Atlanta Motor Speedway Sunday.

Erik Jones, who was forced to make a pas through penalty at the start of the race when he beat pole sitter Busch across the start-finish line, rallied back to finish third.

What is earned can be taken away however, and the No. 18 team quickly learned that as Busch’s time was disallowed after the auto failed post-qualifying inspection.

The ruling handed brother Kurt Busch the pole position at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

The final driver who made it into the final round of qualifying was Hendrick Motorsport’s Kasey Kahne, who will now start from 11th place on the grid following Kyle Busch’s disqualification. It was not disclosed how the rear end was out of NASCAR compliance, but it is a disappointing turn of events for the reigning Sprint Cup Series champion.

“It certainly means a lot, just to accomplish some of the goals I have in the sport”, Busch said.

NASCAR senior VP of competition Scott Miller said NASCAR began measuring rear toe after qualifying this season at the drivers’ request.

“This is a way to police that”, Miller said. “We saw that in qualifying, too”, Menard said. “We needed to be a little bit faster than that to contend for the top 12 anyway, so we’re just off a little bit from what we were hoping for”.

Other notables in the starting field include Daytona 500 victor Denny Hamlin (12th), Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Before the post-qualifying inspection results were announced, Kurt Busch said Kyle “got us just by a little bit”. It seemed like everybody ran higher in 1 and 2, which I think will be a good sign for the race because the bottom will work as well.

“I’ll wave at him and he’ll wave at me and then we’ll go back to business”, said Kurt Busch.

Trevor Bayne qualified third ahead of Ryan Newman, with Ricky Stenhouse Jr and Carl Edwards set to line up behind them for Sunday’s race.

Among those who failed to even progress from the first round were Daytona 500 pole victor Chase Elliott (Hendrick), Joey Logano (Penske) and Danica Patrick (SHR).

Added Greg Biffle: “You can definitely tell the difference in downforce. It’s going to be a little slick on Sunday”.

The 250-mile race took just 112 minutes for the 40-car field.