Kyle Busch Wins Indy Xfinity Pole by 2/100ths of a Second
INDIANAPOLIS -RIS- (July 23, 2016) Under sweltering temperatures, NASCAR Sprint Cup veteran and 2015 Brickyard 500 champion Kyle Busch held onto the Coors Light pole for today's running of the Lilly Diabetes 250 at the historic 2.5-mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Busch's pole time and speed in the sixth running of this event was 49.467 seconds, and 181.939 mph.
Busch earned his sixth pole of the year, and 54th career pole today, by withstanding a late qualifying run by Erik Jones' #20 Hisense Toyota. The margin between the first two cars was 2/1000ths of a second.
Following the two fastest Toyotas were the two Chevys of Kyle Larson and Kevin Harvick, at 181.105 and 179.892, respectively.
Series points leader, Daniel Suarez, will start fifth in the Juniper Networks Toyota at 179.888 mph.
Elliott Sadler, currently second in points, delivered a best lap of 177.075 mph. He will start in 19th position.
Kyle Busch has won a remarkable four poles in the last five NASCAR races at Indianapolis.
This evening's race will consist of two heat races. Positions 1-40 qualifiers will line up in the two heats, odd numbers in Heat 1, even in Heat 2.
NASCAR
Xfinity Series
Lilly Diabetes
Indianapolis Motor Speedway
July 23, 2016
QUALIFYING RESULTS
| P | CAR | DRIVER | MAN | SPONSOR | BSPEED | BTIME | GAP | |||
| 1 | 18 | Kyle Busch | T | NOS Energy Drink | 181.939 | 49.467 | Leader | |||
| 2 | 20 | Erik Jones | T | Hisense USA | 181.932 | 49.469 | 0.002 | |||
| 3 | 42 | Kyle Larson | C | ParkerStore | 181.105 | 49.695 | 0.228 | |||
| 4 | 88 | Kevin Harvick | C | Hunt Brothers Pizza | 179.892 | 50.030 | 0.563 | |||
| 5 | 19 | Daniel Suarez | T | Juniper Networks | 179.888 | 50.031 | 0.564 | |||
| 6 | 7 | Justin Allgaier | C | Brandt | 179.247 | 50.210 | 0.743 | |||
| 7 | 22 | Joey Logano | F | Discount Tire | 179.158 | 50.235 | 0.768 | |||
| 8 | 2 | Paul Menard | C | Richmond/Menards | 178.987 | 50.283 | 0.816 | |||
| 9 | 16 | Ryan Reed | F | Lilly Diabetes/ADA/Mustang | 177.448 | 50.719 | 1.252 | |||
| 10 | 48 | Brennan Poole | C | DC Solar | 176.439 | 51.009 | 1.542 | |||
| 11 | 33 | Brandon Jones | C | Jeld-Wen / Menards | 175.562 | 51.264 | 1.797 | |||
| 12 | 39 | Ryan Sieg | C | NiceTargets | 175.309 | 51.338 | 1.871 | |||
| 13 | 11 | Blake Koch | C | LeafFilter Gutter Protection | 178.767 | 50.345 | 0.878 | |||
| 14 | 6 | Darrell Wallace Jr | F | Ford Ecoboost Ford Mustang | 178.080 | 50.539 | 1.072 | |||
| 15 | 98 | Jeb Burton | F | Estes | 177.915 | 50.586 | 1.119 | |||
| 16 | 3 | Ty Dillon | C | Rheem / Nidec / US Motors | 177.855 | 50.603 | 1.136 | |||
| 17 | 51 | Jeremy Clements | C | RepairableVehicles.com / SDD | 177.574 | 50.683 | 1.216 | |||
| 18 | 62 | Brendan Gaughan | C | South Point | 177.092 | 50.821 | 1.354 | |||
| 19 | 1 | Elliott Sadler | C | OneMain | 177.075 | 50.826 | 1.359 | |||
| 20 | 28 | Dakoda Armstrong | T | WinField | 176.439 | 51.009 | 1.542 | |||
| 21 | 10 | Matt DiBenedetto | T | TBD | 176.394 | 51.022 | 1.555 | |||
| 22 | 7 | Ray Black Jr | C | ScubaLife | 175.740 | 51.212 | 1.745 | |||
| 23 | 1 | Ryan Preece | C | teamjdmotorsports.com | 175.514 | 51.278 | 1.811 | |||
| 24 | 4 | Ross Chastain | C | Dream Water | 175.439 | 51.300 | 1.833 | |||
| 25 | 44 | J.J. Yeley | T | Zachry | 175.275 | 51.348 | 1.881 | |||
| 26 | 78 | B J McLeod | F | Safecraft Safety Equipment | 174.822 | 51.481 | 2.014 | |||
| 27 | 14 | Jeff Green | T | TBD | 174.717 | 51.512 | 2.045 | |||
| 28 | 93 | David Starr | C | Massimo Motors | 174.459 | 51.588 | 2.121 | |||
| 29 | 0 | Garrett Smithley | C | teamjdmotorsports.com | 174.091 | 51.697 | 2.230 | |||
| 30 | 46 | Brandon Gdovic | C | TCC Culture of Good | 173.681 | 51.819 | 2.352 | |||
| 31 | 40 | Timmy Hill | T | CrashClaimsR.Us / Icard Merrill | 172.252 | 52.249 | 2.782 | |||
| 32 | 97 | Ryan Ellis | C | Vroom Brands | 170.126 | 52.902 | 3.435 | |||
| 33 | 89 | Morgan Shepherd | C | TBD | 169.847 | 52.989 | 3.522 | |||
| 34 | 52 | Joey Gase | C | Donate Life | 169.725 | 53.027 | 3.560 | |||
| 35 | 13 | Harrison Rhodes | D | TredWear.com / Master Properties | 169.706 | 53.033 | 3.566 | |||
| 36 | 70 | Derrike Cope | C | E-hydrate / Circle Track Warehouse | 169.039 | 53.242 | 3.775 | |||
| 37 | 25 | Stanton Barrett | F | KeensBuildings.com | 166.236 | 54.140 | 4.673 | |||
| 38 | 15 | Todd Peck | F | Carport Empire / Lilly Trucking | 166.024 | 54.209 | 4.742 | |||
| 39 | 74 | Mike Harmon | D | TBD | 165.505 | 54.379 | 4.912 | |||
| 40 | 90 | Mario Gosselin | C | BuckedUp Apparel | 163.905 | 54.910 | 5.443 |
Tom Beeler
Tom has been a contributor to RIS since 1992. He was invited to join the staff as a full-time reporter/editor in 1995, and has covered IndyCar, Formula 1, NASCAR, Grand-Am, ALMS and the 24 Hours of Le Mans. In addition to his RIS work, Tom has been a contributor for General Motors, Nissan, Toyota and the ACO.