Busch on Kentucky pole; Larson to start last

Kyle Busch has thrown down the gauntlet at Kentucky Speedway.

The Joe Gibbs Racing driver broke the track record in the second round of qualifying for the Quaker State 400, which was good enough to win the pole. Busch was atop the leaderboard when NASCAR made the decision to cancel qualifying after the second round because of severe weather in the area.

• Starting lineup

Busch's record lap was 190.282 mph (28.37 seconds) around the 1.5-mile speedway.

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The pole is Busch's second at Kentucky and third of the season. Earlier in the day, Busch also won the pole for the Xfinity Series race that was postponed until Saturday afternoon (noon ET, NBCSN).

Saturday night, Busch will look for his first Monster Energy Series win of the season and third at Kentucky.

Martin Truex Jr. will start second following a lap of 190.194 mph.

Matt Kenseth, Jamie McMurray and Denny Hamlin rounded out the top five. The rest of the top 10 were Ryan Blaney, Kevin Harvick, Jimmie Johnson, Daniel Suarez and Brad Keselowski. Keselowski is the defending race winner.

Chase Elliott was the first driver to break the track record. Elliott laid down a lap of 189.434 mph in 28.50 seconds. But after being the quickest in the first round, Elliott ended up 12th in the second round.

Points leader Kyle Larson will come from the back of the field. Larson's car was the only one that did not make it through inspection before time expired on the first round of qualifying. Since he was unable to attempt a lap, Larson will start last (40th) Saturday night.

"I don't know, obviously, I would like to go out there and qualify because I feel like I have a really good shot at the pole," said Larson, who was fastest in final practice. "We'll be fine from the back. Our Target Chevy was really good today, I thought, in race trim, better than I've ever felt at Kentucky.

"Obviously, it'll be hard to pass, but we also thought the same thing at Texas and we didn't get to qualify there and I cruised right to the front no problem. So, we'll see."