Kyle Busch Blisters the Track Record at Kansas to Take the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Pole

         With a track record speed of 30.181 seconds (178.921 mph), Kyle Busch took his first career NASCAR pole at Kansas Speedway. After rained out qualifying sessions at Daytona and Martinsville, the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series still had not tried NASCAR's new group qualifying format. All that changed as beautiful weather brought the first group qualifying session for the Trucks at Kansas. Nobody knew what was coming for the session and it turned out to be a strategy move that decided the pole. Draft turned out to be key in the final round and no trucks went on track until the final two and a half minutes of the scheduled five minutes remained. Busch went out tenth of the twelve drivers and he was able to run a quick lap thanks to the draft. He moved to the provisional pole and he held it in the final seconds to take the pole and the track record. Ryan Blaney used the drafting strategy to take a second place starting spot, Johnny Sauter took a third place starting spot, Brian Ickler continued his momentum to start the season with a fourth place starting spot, and Joey Logano took a fifth place starting spot in another one of his sporadic Truck starts. Behind them, a good many other Truck regulars and Cup regulars followed. The session was not without incident as Ben Kennedy slammed the outside wall hard along with Darrell Wallace Jr. having engine problems on track. All in all, it was a very good session for the NASCAR Camping Truck Series to begin group qualifying in the series.

         Tayler Malsam was the the first driver on track for the start of the twenty five minute first round. He ran a good lap to start the session as the rest of the trucks began to file on track. Early on in the session, Timothy Peters was able to jump to the top of the board. Three minutes into the session, Ben Kennedy had the first trouble of the session. He broke loose in turn 2 and he tried to save his truck, but he couldn't at the high speed. He slid up the race track and piled hard into the outside wall. His truck was heavily damaged, but he managed to drive his way back to pit road. It wouldn't matter, though, as Kennedy would have to move into a back-up truck. The wreck was cleaned up quickly and the session continued on. After the session went back green, Joey Logano was able to jump to the top of the board ahead of Timothy Peters. A couple of minutes later, Matt Crafton unseated Logano at the top of the qualifying leaderboard. Crafton wouldn't remain comfortable at the top as Kyle Busch took the first spot a minute later. As ten minutes remained, the action on track began to come to a halt. Trucks remained on pit road  as the minutes began to close on the session. As time wound down, all drivers remained on pit road and the red and black flag waved to an empty track. Kyle Busch remained in the top spot while T.J. Bell took the twenty fourth and final transfer spot. Matt Crafton, Joey Logano, Ryan Blaney, Austin Dillon, Ron Hornaday Jr., Johnny Sauter, Timothy Peters, and others moved on while Ben Kennedy didn't move on after his crash and others missed the top twenty four. After a calm first twenty five minutes, the next two rounds would be very tense.

        Matt Crafton was the first driver to head on track for the ten minute second round. He ran a decent time to start the round as the drivers began to file onto the track. Early on, Austin Dillon made his way to the top of the board. About a minute later, Joey Logano took the top spot from Dillon. As Logano moved to the top spot, the battle for the twelfth and final transfer spot began. Tayler Malsam, Ron Hornaday Jr., Darrell Wallace Jr., and others were all looking to move on. The minutes began to click away and these few drivers were still looking to move on. With about three minutes left, Wallace's chances went up in literal smoke. As he entered turn 1, his truck began to smoke. He immediately made the move to the apron as he was experiencing engine troubles. He pulled down pit road and his team immediately began to work on the engine, but he would most likely need a new engine. Nonetheless, the battle was still raging on track to make the top twelve. Hornaday, Malsam, and others were still riding around looking for some speed. It would be of no use as the top twelve remained the same as the red and black flag waved. Joey Logano remained at the top as John Wes Townley took the twelfth and final transfer spot. Austin Dillon, Brennan Newberry, Timothy Peters, Kyle Busch, Johnny Sauter, Matt Crafton, Brian Ickler, Jeb Burton, Ryan Blaney, and Joey Coulter moved on while Ron Hornaday Jr., Tayler Malsam, Darrell Wallace Jr., and others didn't move on to the final round. Now, the battle would be on for the pole at Kansas for the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series.

       The third and final round went green and the chess match began. Brennan Newberry went to go on track, but he stopped after leaving pit road as the entire field stopped without going on track. The minutes began to click off and only three minutes remained with all drivers still on pit road. The two and a half minute mark came and the field headed on track with Brennan Newberry leading. Newberry ran a decent lap, but the battle for the pole would be behind him as only about a minute and a half remained. A few drivers moved to the top spot as they passed the line, but Kyle Busch was still coming. He flew to the line and jumped into the provisional pole spot with only about a minute left to go. The minute remaining wouldn't be enough for another run and Busch looked to have the pole in the bag. As the red and black flag waved, the pole was Busch's and it was his thirteenth career NASCAR Camping World Truck Series pole. It was a great run for Busch and he will look for the win to add to his pole.

        Kyle Busch has always been one of the best drivers in NASCAR's two lower series. Already this year, he has two wins in the NASCAR Nationwide Series and a win in the first event of the season for the Trucks at Daytona. Along with that, he has been running pretty good in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series as he has a win at Auto Club. It seems like, though, Busch has been struggling in recent weeks. Tonight, though, could be his night to take a win from the pole. Behind him, the field will have to battle hard to take advantage of Busch. Ryan Blaney will start second and he has been fast all weekend. It could be his night to win in Kansas. Johnny Sauter has been running well all year, but he doesn't have a win and a third place starting spot could help him with that. Brian Ickler made his return to NASCAR this year with Red Horse Racing and a fourth place starting spot could send him to victory lane for the first time. Joey Logano already has two wins in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series this year, but he will be looking for his first NASCAR Camping World Truck Series win tonight while starting fifth. Others will have a little tougher road. Darrell Wallace Jr. will most likely have to start in the back with an engine change while Ben Kennedy will definitely start in the back after moving to a back-up truck. Mixed in with those guys are Matt Crafton, Jeb Burton, Austin Dillon, Timothy Peters, Ron Hornaday Jr., and a good many other possible contenders. Everyone is definitely in for a show tonight as the Truck Series runs the first ever night race at Kansas. It will be a good one and one very fun to watch. Will Matt Crafton repeat at Kansas, will Kyle Busch take a win from the pole, or will another driver manage to stand tall in victory lane? We will have to wait only a few minutes to start the event and find out all these answers.
(More Stats Down Below!)





Top 5 Qualifiers (With Times):
1st: Kyle Busch      30.181 (178.921 mph)
2nd: Ryan Blaney      30.189 (178.873 mph)
3rd: Johnny Sauter     30.206 (178.772 mph)
4th: Brian Ickler     30.304 (178.194 mph)
5th: Joey Logano      30.382 (177.737 mph)

Notables Not in Top 5 (With Times):
6th: Jeb Burton      30.413 (177.556 mph)
7th: Austin Dillon      30.437 (177.416 mph)
8th: Timothy Peters     30.446 (177.363 mph)
9th: Matt Crafton      30.503 (177.032 mph)
14th: Ron Hornaday Jr.      30.862 (174.972 mph)
21st: Darrell Wallace Jr.     31.148 (173.366 mph)
30th: Ben Kennedy      No Time*
(*: Kennedy wrecked in the first round before putting up a lap.)





Credits:
-My Own Notes
-Statistics:
http://www.nascar.com/en_us/camping-world-truck-series/leaderboard/leaderboard-qualification.html
http://www.jayski.com/cts/next/2014/pdfs/cts_03kansas2014lineup.pdf
http://racing-reference.info/getqualify/2014-03/C
-Image:
https://twitter.com/NASCAR/status/464885794918780929/photo/1