Matt Kenseth leads JGR parade in NASCAR qualifying at Michigan

Matt Kenseth celebrates after qualifying for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Pure Michigan 400 at Michigan International Speedway on August 14, 2015 in Brooklyn, Michigan.
Matt Kenseth celebrates after qualifying for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Pure Michigan 400 at Michigan International Speedway on August 14, 2015 in Brooklyn, Michigan.
Matt Kenseth celebrates after qualifying for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Pure Michigan 400 at Michigan International Speedway on August 14, 2015 in Brooklyn, Michigan.

Matt Kenseth continued the Joe Gibbs Racing hot streak Friday putting down a pole-winning lap of 197.488 mph around the 2-mile Michigan International Speedway. It was Kenseth’s 16th career pole his third of the season and his first at Michigan.  The top spot gives the four-car JGR stable its fourth pole in the last five races with four of those races being won by a Gibbs Toyota, Kyle Busch has three wins and Kenseth won two weeks ago at Pocono.  Kenseth said he was surprised that he was the one who put down the fastest lap of the day.

“We were a long ways off Carl (Edwards) in practice and I don’t even know what changes they made, but they changed a lot of stuff that really woke this thing up and had some speed,” Kenseth said. “I knew I got through (turns) one and two good, but Denny (Hamlin) put up such a fast lap and I got into three and I was bound and determined that I was going to make it wide open. I had the first half of the corner, it was the second half that was starting to get exciting. I got sliding up the track and bogged down a little bit. I wasn’t sure that we were going have it.”

Denny Hamlin, another JGR Toyota will start second, with Carl Edwards who won two of the last five pole starting third; Kyle Busch who won three consecutive races leading up to Pocono will start sixth.  MORE>>>

Greg Engle
About Greg Engle 7421 Articles
Greg is a published award winning sportswriter who spent 23 years combined active and active reserve military service, much of that in and around the Special Operations community. Greg is the author of "The Nuts and Bolts of NASCAR: The Definitive Viewers' Guide to Big-Time Stock Car Auto Racing" and has been published in major publications across the country including the Los Angeles Times, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was also a contributor to Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Soul, published in 2010, and the Christmas edition in 2016. He wrote as the NASCAR, Formula 1, Auto Reviews and National Veterans Affairs Examiner for Examiner.com and has appeared on Fox News. He holds a BS degree in communications, a Masters degree in psychology and is currently a PhD candidate majoring in psychology. He is currently the weekend Motorsports Editor for Autoweek.