NASCAR Cup Series

Matt Kenseth fastest in qualifying to grab pole for NASCAR's longest race

Published May. 21, 2015 8:33 p.m. ET

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Tom Jensen

Veteran Matt Kenseth showed new-found speed on Thursday night, as he won the pole for NASCAR's longest race, the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Joe Gibbs Racing, the team Kenseth drives for, captured three of the top five starting spots for Sunday's marathon.

Never known as a great qualifier, Kenseth lapped the 1.5-mile track at 194.252 miles per hour in his No. 20 JGR Toyota to take his second pole of the season and 15th of his career.

"It's one lap. It's 600 miles Sunday, but it's a good place to start," said Kenseth, who scored his first career NASCAR Sprint Cup Series victory in this race in 2000. "A good way to start the weekend."

Starting on the outside of Row 1 will be Joey Logano, who clocked in at 192.836 mph in his No. 22 Team Penske Ford. "Right now, we're picking up speed through the sessions, which is nice," Logano said. "Last year, our weak point in qualifying was maintaining that speed throughout three sessions."

JGR drivers Carl Edwards and Denny Hamlin were third and fifth, respectively, with Greg Biffle qualifying between them with a season's-best fourth in his Roush Fenway Racing Ford.

After struggling on 1.5-mile tracks for most of 2014 and the start of this season, the Gibbs Toyotas have shown marked improvement in recent weeks. Hamlin won the NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race on Saturday night and Edwards was fastest in practice earlier Friday. Kenseth said he could feel the performance picking up in his Toyotas.

"We've been gaining on it, for sure," Kenseth said. "We're a lot better than last year. We got some better cars built and we're always trying to work on better setups. TRD's been doing a great job of getting us more power. ... We all had good speed today."

Sunday's Coca-Cola 600 will be Toyota's 300th Sprint Cup race.

In something of a surprise, none of the five Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolets made it to the final round at their home track, with Jimmie Johnson qualifying 13th, Dale Earnhardt Jr. 15th and Jeff Gordon 18th. None of those three got out of the second round of qualifying, and neither did Kyle Busch (17th) nor Danica Patrick (20th).

"I'm just disappointed in that second run out," Gordon said. "The car never got down to the white line. It was real tight."

In the first rounds, Kasey Kahne suffered a flat left-rear tire, his Hendrick Chevrolet winding up 33rd. "The good thing is, it's a long race," Kahne said. "It shouldn't be too big an issue to get back to the front."

Rookie Chase Elliott didn't make the second round, either, but he made the race, qualifying 28th in his Hendrick Chevy.

Failing to qualify were Jeb Burton, Mike Bliss, Travis Kvapil, Jeff Green and Brendan Gaughan.

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