{"id":27392,"date":"2019-07-19T17:55:31","date_gmt":"2019-07-19T22:55:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=27392"},"modified":"2019-07-21T18:55:49","modified_gmt":"2019-07-21T23:55:49","slug":"brad-keselowski-breaks-pole-drought-with-strong-run-at-magic-mile","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2019\/07\/19\/brad-keselowski-breaks-pole-drought-with-strong-run-at-magic-mile\/","title":{"rendered":"Brad Keselowski breaks pole drought with strong run at Magic Mile"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service<\/em><\/p>\n

LOUDON, N.H. \u2013 Starved for a pole position for nearly two years, Brad Keselowski<\/strong> put a decisive end to the qualifying drought on Friday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, edging Kyle Busch for the top starting spot in Sunday\u2019s Foxwoods Resort Casino 301 (3 p.m. ET on NBCSN, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Brad Keselowski, driver of the #2 Alliance Truck Parts Ford, celebrates with the Pole Award qualifying for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Foxwoods Resort Casino 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on July 19, 2019 in Loudon, New Hampshire. (Photo by Brian Lawdermilk\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

Fastest on the first of his two laps in time trials, Keselowski beat Busch by .015 seconds, covering the one-mile distance in 27.927 seconds (136.384 mph). Busch clocked in at 136.311 mph.<\/p>\n

The Busch Pole Award was Keselowski\u2019s fourth at the Magic Mile and his first here since the driver of the No. 2 Team Penske Ford set the track qualifying record in 2014 (20.090 seconds at 140.598 mph). After 11 of his 14 previous career pole runs, Keselowski has finished in the top 10, including two victories. His only victory at Loudon, however, came from the seventh starting position (2014).<\/p>\n

\u201cThis definitely surprised me,\u201d said Keselowski, who last won a pole in the August race at Michigan in 2017. \u201cIt\u2019s been a while since we\u2019ve had a pole. We\u2019ve had really good cars but haven\u2019t been able to make the most of it with the driver in qualifying, so it\u2019s nice to get one here in Loudon.”<\/p>\n

Track position aside, the primary benefit of winning the pole at New Hampshire may well be the selection of pit stall No. 1, closest to the exit from pit road.<\/p>\nhttp:\/\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/NHMS_MENCS_Keselowski_071919.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

\u201cThe first pit stall will be huge for sure,\u201d Keselowski concurred. \u201cThis track on pit road has a lot of chaos. I\u2019m not saying you can\u2019t wreck in pit stall No. 1, but it\u2019s a little harder there and it certainly makes life a lot easier for your pit crew. It\u2019s like you\u2019re in the HOV lane (on pit exit).\u201d<\/p>\n

Kurt Busch, last Sunday\u2019s winner at Kentucky Speedway, qualified third at 136.238 mph. Erik Jones will start fourth, followed by Ryan Blaney, Martin Truex Jr., Matt DiBenedetto and two-time Loudon winner Joey Logano.<\/p>\n

Jones matched his best effort in time trials this season, having also qualified fourth at both Bristol and Pocono. His No. 20 Toyota showed significant improvement over practice earlier in the day.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was kind of a struggle this morning, but actually there (in qualifying) it felt pretty good,\u201d Jones said. \u201cDefinitely a lot better than what we had in practice. I missed it a little bit on the lap. It had some more in it. Just didn\u2019t hit it right.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Stanley Camry felt good there, so I think that was the first time all day I\u2019ve had a good feel in the car, and if we can kind of transfer that into (Saturday\u2019s practice), that\u2019d be a positive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alex Bowman, who locked himself into the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs with a victory at Chicagoland Speedway, will start last after failing to complete a lap in time trials because of a broken drive shaft.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a big boom and something broke,\u201d said Bowman, who had begun his first lap before the part failure. \u201cI don’t know. I haven\u2019t looked at the car. Obviously, the drive shaft broke. I don\u2019t know if the gears or the drive shaft went first. It took out a lot of stuff on the way out. There\u2019s oil everywhere. Just part of it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t like New Hampshire. I\u2019ve always struggled here. I\u2019m a selfish, biased race car driver, so places I struggle, I don\u2019t like. It\u2019s going to be hot, and certainly we have our work cut out for us starting from the back. But we\u2019ll make it a good day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Denny Hamlin and Ryan Newman qualified 23rd and 26th, respectively, in backup cars after wrecking in practice.<\/p>\n

Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Qualifying – 27th Annual Foxwoods Resort Casino 301<\/b><\/p>\n

New Hampshire Motor Speedway<\/b><\/p>\n

Loudon, New Hampshire<\/b><\/p>\n

Friday, July 19, 2019<\/b><\/p>\n

                1. (2) Brad Keselowski, Ford, 136.384 mph.<\/p>\n

                2. (18) Kyle Busch, Toyota, 136.311 mph.<\/p>\n

                3. (1) Kurt Busch, Chevrolet, 136.238 mph.<\/p>\n

                4. (20) Erik Jones, Toyota, 136.189 mph.<\/p>\n

                5. (12) Ryan Blaney, Ford, 136.116 mph.<\/p>\n

                6. (19) Martin Truex Jr, Toyota, 136.082 mph.<\/p>\n

                7. (95) Matt DiBenedetto, Toyota, 135.990 mph.<\/p>\n

                8. (22) Joey Logano, Ford, 135.893 mph.<\/p>\n

                9. (10) Aric Almirola, Ford, 135.883 mph.<\/p>\n

                10. (48) Jimmie Johnson, Chevrolet, 135.844 mph.<\/p>\n

                11. (17) Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Ford, 135.723 mph.<\/p>\n

                12. (9) Chase Elliott, Chevrolet, 135.709 mph.<\/p>\n

                13. (41) Daniel Suarez, Ford, 135.607 mph.<\/p>\n

                14. (4) Kevin Harvick, Ford, 135.496 mph.<\/p>\n

                15. (42) Kyle Larson, Chevrolet, 135.395 mph.<\/p>\n

                16. (14) Clint Bowyer, Ford, 135.236 mph.<\/p>\n

                17. (21) Paul Menard, Ford, 134.577 mph.<\/p>\n

                18. (13) Ty Dillon, Chevrolet, 134.572 mph.<\/p>\n

                19. (8) Daniel Hemric #, Chevrolet, 134.553 mph.<\/p>\n

                20. (38) David Ragan, Ford, 134.435 mph.<\/p>\n

                21. (3) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 134.269 mph.<\/p>\n

                22. (24) William Byron, Chevrolet, 134.113 mph.<\/p>\n

                23. (11) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 133.962 mph.<\/p>\n

                24. (34) Michael McDowell, Ford, 133.938 mph.<\/p>\n

                25. (37) Chris Buescher, Chevrolet, 133.525 mph.<\/p>\n

                26. (6) Ryan Newman, Ford, 133.189 mph.<\/p>\n

                27. (43) Bubba Wallace, Chevrolet, 133.091 mph.<\/p>\n

                28. (47) Ryan Preece #, Chevrolet, 133.021 mph.<\/p>\n

                29. (32) Corey LaJoie, Ford, 132.919 mph.<\/p>\n

                30. (36) Matt Tifft #, Ford, 132.831 mph.<\/p>\n

                31. (00) Landon Cassill(i), Chevrolet, 132.030 mph.<\/p>\n

                32. (15) Ross Chastain(i), Chevrolet, 130.815 mph.<\/p>\n

                33. (27) Reed Sorenson, Chevrolet, 129.529 mph.<\/p>\n

                34. (77) Quin Houff, Chevrolet, 128.845 mph.<\/p>\n

                35. (51) Andy Seuss, Ford, 128.376 mph.<\/p>\n

                36. (52) Austin Theriault, Chevrolet, 123.366 mph.<\/p>\n

                37. (88) Alex Bowman, Chevrolet, 0.000 mph.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service LOUDON, N.H. \u2013 Starved for a pole position for nearly two years, Brad Keselowski put a decisive end to the qualifying drought on Friday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, edging Kyle Busch for the top starting spot in Sunday\u2019s Foxwoods Resort Casino 301 (3 p.m. ET on NBCSN, PRN […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":676,"featured_media":27381,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[11],"tags":[79,16,466],"class_list":["post-27392","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nascar","tag-brad-keselowski","tag-nascar","tag-new-hampshire-motor-speedway"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/MENCS_NHMS_BradKeselowski_071919.jpg?fit=4032%2C2794","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-77O","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27392","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/676"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27392"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27392\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27393,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27392\/revisions\/27393"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27381"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}