NASCAR Charlotte 2014 qualifying results: Kyle Busch takes pole

For much of the season, Joe Gibbs Racing has struggled to find speed. At the most opportune time, however, the organization may be peaking.

Led by Kyle Busch (197.390 mph), JGR drivers qualified first and third for Saturday’s race at Charlotte Motor Speedway, the fifth event of the Chase for the Sprint Cup. Jeff Gordon will start second, while Busch’s teammate, Denny Hamlin, is third.

That JGR’s cars were among the fastest cars in qualifying Thursday is a bit of a surprise. Intermediate tracks like Charlotte have been an area of weakness with Busch and Hamlin frequently lamenting the lack of horsepower its Toyota motors produced.

“We’re working on it and we are getting better,” Busch said. “I’ve been saying that if we get one piece of the puzzle each week at a time and we’re going to be hard to beat. We’ll see if we’ve got it all.”

Throughout the summer months, though, the team made steady gains and entered the Chase confident it could contend for the championship. Twenty-one of 29 races have been won by Team Penske or Hendrick this season.

“It certainly feels good that we’re heading in the right direction at the right time of the year,” Busch said. “It’s all about peaking at the right time and hopefully we haven’t peaked yet and we still have a ways to climb. I feel like we do anyways. We haven’t won. There’s opportunity there.

“Hopefully there’s still a continuation of that here in the next six weeks.”

The pole was Busch’s third of 2014. Other playoff drivers in the top-10: Ryan Newman (fifth), Kevin Harvick (seventh), Dale Earnhardt Jr. (ninth) and Carl Edwards (10th).

Chasers Joey Logano (13th), Brad Keselowski, (17th) Kasey Kahne (19th), Jimmie Johnson (21st) and Matt Kenseth (22nd) all failed to transfer to the third round of qualifying. Both Keselowski and Johnson needed to post laps in the final minutes just to advance out of the first session.

“Our first round was not where we wanted to be and the guys worked on it and got us a little more speed,” Keselowski said. “That got us to the next round and then we still didn’t quite have enough. We think we have a solid race car.”

Said Johnson: “It’s disappointing. There’s no way around it.”

Keselowski and Johnson each crashed last Sunday at Kansas Speedway. If either is to avoid Chase elimination, they will likely need to win at Charlotte or next week at Talladega Superspeedway.

“There’s a lot at stake, but it is every weekend,” Keselowski said. “This is part of the challenge. We need to perform. This is our last chance to really control our destiny in the Chase for this round and we want to make the most of this opportunity.”

Trevor Bayne was the only driver who failed to qualify. He was in a fourth Roush Fenway Racing car, the team Bayne will join full-time next season.