Kyle Busch grabs Pocono pole in Toyota 1-2-3

Kyle Busch has never won at Pocono Raceway. This weekend he will be without three key members of his team, including his crew chief, because of suspensions handed down earlier this week.

But none of that mattered Friday.

• Starting lineup

Busch laid down the fastest lap in both the second and third rounds of Cup Series qualifying to win the pole for the Axalta presents the Pocono 400. His lap of 179.151mph bested his Toyota teammates of Martin Truex Jr. at 178.543mph and Matt Kenseth at 178.108mph.

"It's really good," Busch said of winning the pole despite the circumstances. "Any week you're able to qualify first and get the number one pit selection is obviously good. Hopefully, it's a good omen although last week we threw it away on lap 20.

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"We certainly need to be able to do a better job than that throughout the whole entire race, myself and our pit crew and all of our guys. But we expect a lot of ourselves and we certainly beat each other up a lot sometimes during the week – we have this week."

After starting on the pole at Dover, Busch had a left-rear wheel come off during a pit stop. Per the NASCAR rulebook the penalty is a four-week suspension of crew chief Adam Stevens as well as tire changer Jacob Seminara and tire carrier Kenneth Barber. Busch will look for his first Pocono win in his 25th start with interim crew chief Ben Beshore.

Ryan Blaney was fourth fastest at 177.897mph and defending race winner Kurt Busch was fifth fastest at 177.799mph. The rest of the top 10 were Brad Keselowski, Kyle Larson, Jamie McMurray, Joey Logano and Ryan Newman. Qualifying 11th was Michael McDowell, who tied his career-best starting spot on a non-restrictor-plate track.

Darrell Wallace Jr. will start 16th in his Cup Series debut.

Other notables were the four Hendrick Motorsports cars. Jimmie Johnson qualified the highest for the organization at 19th while his three teammates will start outside the top 20. Chase Elliott will start 25th and Kasey Kahne will start 26th.

For Dale Earnhardt Jr., who starts 28th, his effort was by design. After his team had to change an engine in practice, Earnhardt was merely attempting a lap for pit stall selection.

At the front, however, Busch now hopes his third Pocono pole will translate to his first win of the season.

"It's all about the speed that our guys are bringing to the racetrack," Busch continued. "The M&M's Camry has been really fast. Can't say enough about all troops and everyone that we're supporting with our red, white, and blue cars. Our Toyota Camrys have been showing speed the last few weeks and it would be nice to show that through 400 miles here on Sunday."