Keselowski remains driver to beat after Vegas pole

Brad Keselowski is still the man to beat in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series.

Coming off a victory in Atlanta last weekend, Keselowski, the defending winner of the Kobalt 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, put down the fastest lap in qualifying Friday night. Keselowski's lap of 193.680mph was enough to take the pole over Martin Truex Jr. (193.458mph), who was fastest in practice earlier in the day.

It is Keselowski's first pole of the season, his first at Las Vegas, and the 13th of his career.

"We really struggle in [Turns] 1 and 2, but you can probably see with the tracker we had a great 3 and 4," Keselowski said. "That'll put the Miller Lite Ford on the pole, which is great because every year it seems like we sweat [getting into] the Clash and to get that over with is great."

Keselowski's Ford teammate Ryan Blaney will start third after a lap of 193.410mph. The start ties Blaney's career best, which he also accomplished at Talladega Superspeedway in the spring of 2015.

Matt Kenseth (193.389mph) and Kyle Larson (193.161mph) rounded out the top five. The rest of the top 10 were Joey Logano (193.140mph), Kasey Kahne (193.133mph), Erik Jones (192.369mph), Kyle Busch (192.362mph), and Jamie McMurray (192.362mph).