Brickyard 400 qualifying results: Kyle Busch wins pole at Indianapolis Motor Speedway

Kyle Busch will go for a record third straight Brickyard 400 win Sunday from the most advantageous starting position after capturing the pole in qualifying Saturday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Busch’s 187.301 mph lap bumped Kevin Harvick (186.332 mph) from the top spot in the final minute of knockout qualifying, earning him his second consecutive pole in what is one of NASCAR’s marquee events. It is also Busch’s fourth pole of the 2017 Monster Energy Cup Series season, setting a career-high.

“I’m certainly optimistic about it,” Busch said of winning three Indianapolis races in a row. “I do feel like we’ve got a great shot. I didn’t know what we had at all going into qualifying, but obviously our car’s got some pretty decent speed, so we’ve just got to keep it there and stay up front and lead some laps and of course lead the last one.”

Busch’s victory a year ago was his last in the Cup, a 35-race winless streak representing the longest of his 13-year career. That drought has included several near-misses where the Joe Gibbs Racing driver has been victimized by circumstances out of his control (late-race cautions erasing sizable leads) and self-inflicted mistakes. He led 95 laps and was ahead last week at New Hampshire Motor Speedway when he sped on pit road resulting in a penalty. He was penalized a second time for speeding later in the race.

“We’ve had circumstances where cautions have come out while we’ve been leading the race looking at the white flag and it’s going to be a green-white-checker finish and we come in and pit for two right side tires and a couple guys stay out and they win the race,” Busch said. “There’s been times where we just got tires -- maybe six laps on them -- and the rest of the field is under the same circumstances and the yellow comes out and there’s 10 laps to go and everybody comes in and pits and we stay out and get cycled to the back under the green flag. You name it and it’s happened.

“That’s obviously frustrating to know that you’re that close and you have that chance to win, but you just can’t close the deal.”

Jamie McMurray qualified third, followed by four-time race winner Johnson and Denny Hamlin, who won a week ago at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Completing the top 10 were series points leader Martin Truex Jr., Joey Logano, Ryan Newman, rookie Erik Jones and Ryan Blaney.

Dale Earnhardt qualified 13th for his final Indianapolis start. NASCAR’s 14-time most popular driver announced in April he is retiring as a full-time competitor at the end of the season, and is seeking his first win at the renowned track.

“Every time we come here we think about, ‘Is this the time, is this the chance we finally get to celebrate?’” Earnhardt said. “Because it’s such an incredible race track and so memorable and important to motorsports, and to have your name on the list of guys who have won here would mean a ton to me.”