Kyle Busch has earned the pole for Sunday’s NASCAR All-Star Race at Texas Motor Speedway, defeating Ryan Blaney in the seventh and final matchup in the bracket-style pit crew competition-style format.
The Las Vegas, Nevada-native brought his No. 18 M&M’s Crunchy Cookie Toyota Camry around the 1.5-mile facility quicker than Blaney, after their crews rattled off near equal pit stops, ultimately winning by 1.284 seconds.
Though Blaney didn’t win the final matchup against Busch, he’ll still be awarded the second-place starting spot for Sunday’s event, with William Byron and Kyle Larson – the round two knockouts — starting in third and fourth.
Kurt Busch will start Sunday’s All-Star Race from fifth, with Ross Chastain, Martin Truex Jr, and Aric Almirola rounding out the top eight.
William Byron – who will start from third on Sunday — posted the fastest time in the first round of qualifying on Saturday night, with a lap time of 28.528 seconds (189.288mph), beating out Kyle Busch by 0.026 seconds to take the top seed for round two.
Joey Logano and AJ Allmendinger will start ninth and tenth, after not posting a time quick enough to advance into the second round.
Chase Briscoe, Austin Cindric, Chase Elliott, Christopher Bell, Kevin Harvick, Denny Hamlin, Bubba Wallace, Brad Keselowski, Michael McDowell, and Alex Bowman will start 11th through 20th.
Full Head-to-Head Matchup Results:
R1, M1: #24 William Byron VS #10 Aric Almirola
WINNER: #24 William Byron (+2.192 seconds)
R1, M2: #12 Ryan Blaney VS #1 Ross Chastain
WINNER: #12 Ryan Blaney (+0.269 seconds)
R1, M3: #45 Kurt Busch VS #5 Kyle Larson
WINNER: #5 Kyle Larson (+0.500 seconds)
R1, M4: #18 Kyle Busch VS #19 Martin Truex Jr.
WINNER: #18 Kyle Busch (+4.709 seconds)
R2, M1: #24 William Byron VS #12 Ryan Blaney
WINNER: #12 Ryan Blaney (+0.459 seconds)
R2, M2: #5 Kyle Larson VS #18 Kyle Busch
WINNER: #18 Kyle Busch (Wins by Default)
R3, M1: #12 Ryan Blaney VS #18 Kyle Busch
WINNER: #18 Kyle Busch (+1.284 seconds)
Full Qualifying Results / Starting Lineup:
