Kyle Busch Wins Enjoy Illinois 300 Pole; First Pole in Four Seasons

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Kyle Busch will start from the pole in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series event at WWT Raceway, in the Enjoy Illinois 300. PC: Craig White, TobyChristie.com

For the first time since joining Richard Childress Racing, Kyle Busch has scored a pole position, beating the field in qualifying for Sunday’s Enjoy Illinois 300 at WWT Raceway.

Busch, piloting the No. 8 3CHI Chevrolet Camaro, posted a time of 32.802 seconds (137.187mph) in the second and final round of qualifying on Saturday, to score his 33rd career pole in the NASCAR Cup Series.

The Las Vegas, Nevada-native narrowly beat out Ryan Blaney, the winner of the 2023 Coca-Cola 600, for the pole, holding an eight-thousandths of a second advantage over the Team Penske driver.

Denny Hamlin will start from third place, while Kevin Harvick and Martin Truex, Jr. completed the top five. Joey Logano, William Byron, Ross Chastain, Tyler Reddick, and Austin Cindric rounded out the 10 drivers that advanced to the second round of qualifying.

Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. (P12), Christopher Bell (P17), Alex Bowman (P18), Brad Keselowski (P19), Kyle Larson (P22), and Chase Briscoe (P27) were among the notable drivers that failed to qualify inside the top-10 for Sunday’s event.

Corey LaJoie, serving as the interim driver of the Hendrick Motorsports No. 9, will start Sunday’s 300-mile event from the 30th, after making wall contact on his qualifying lap. Carson Hocevar, taking over the No. 7, qualified 26th.

Full Results / Starting Lineup:

2023 NASCAR Cup Series Enjoy Illinois 300 at Gateway Qualifying Results

Joseph Srigley

Joseph maintains the role of Managing Editor for TobyChristie.com, while also working as an Editor for Racing America. Additionally, Joseph graduated from the University of Windsor in 2022 with a Business Administration degree, a specialization in Supply Chain Management and Data Analytics, and a minor in Mathematics.