Qualifying Stats: Bank of America 500
Jonathan Ferrey/NASCAR via Getty Images
Kyle Busch poses for photos at Charlotte Motor Speedway after scoring his third pole of 2014.
By Dominic Aragon
Editor
October 10, 2014
theracingexperts@aol.com
Thursday’s qualifying session at Charlotte Motor Speedway featured Kyle Busch earning his third pole of 2014 and second at CMS. Below is a breakdown of other numbers and stats to come out of qualifying.
1—After missing the cut to qualify for Saturday night’s race, the DNQ is
the first for Trevor Bayne in his
Cup career.
3—Three drivers will be in the field
with fewer than five career starts in Cup. Blake Koch (3) starts 43rd,
Corey LaJoie (1) starts 42nd and Brett Moffitt (4) will start 39th.
3—Justin Allgaier, who qualified 16th,
is the third different rookie in the last three races to be the highest
qualifying rookie.
4—Ryan Newman’s fifth place qualifying effort will only be his fourth
top-five start of 2014 thus far.
5—Kyle Busch has qualified inside
the top-ten five consecutive race weekends, the longest active streak among the
rest of the field.
6—Chevrolet drivers took six of the
top-ten starting positions in qualifying Thursday.
7—Saturday night’s race will be Jeff Gordon’s seventh front row start of
2014. He had seven front row starts in 2012 and 2013 combined.
9—Although he has scored nine pole
positions at Charlotte Motor Speedway, Ryan Newman hasn’t done so since May
2013, or, nine races at CMS.
16—In 16 races at Charlotte, David
Gilliland has never finished on the lead lap, the most among active drivers.
Gilliland will start 37th.
21—21 cars broke the previous track
record in the first round of qualifying.
22—The lowest a Chase-contending
driver qualified Thursday. Matt Kenseth will start 22nd Saturday
night.
34—While earning the pole is the 16th
of his career, Saturday night will be Kyle Busch’s 34th career front
row start.
84—Joey Logano enters Charlotte 84
laps off of the 1,000 laps led mark. If he can do it Saturday, Logano will
become the fourth driver to do so in 2014. He starts 13th.
The other drivers
are Kevin Harvick (1,653), Brad Keselowski (1,498) and Jimmie Johnson (1,035).
198.771—The speed Kurt Busch set in
the second round of qualifying. The speed is the fastest lap at a 1.5 mile
track in the history of the sport.
