NASCAR Sprint-Cup Series
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CUP: Keselowski On Pole For 600
Brad Keselowski won the pole for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series COCA-COLA 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway...
Tom Jensen  |  Posted May 26, 2011   Concord, NC
The Blue Deuce is coming back, and for Brad Keselowski, it’s not a minute too soon.

Keselowski won his second NASCAR Sprint Cup pole in 65 career starts Thursday, putting the iconic No. 2 Penske Racing Dodge Charger on the inside of Row 1 for Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

The pole-winning lap was 192.089 mph, best of the 48 cars setting times and enough to give the Michigan native a huge smile. “Fast cars go fast and we’re making lots of progress,” said Keselowski, who started the season slow but has picked up speed in recent weeks.

The Michigan native finished third two races ago at Darlington and a decent 13th at Dover last week. Those results came after failing to crack the top 15 in the first nine races of the season.

Just behind Keselowski came the No. 43 Richard Petty Motorsports Ford of AJ Allmendinger, who ran 191.693 mph, which meant he qualified on the outside of Row 1 for the second week in a row.

“I’m shaking a little bit, still,” said Allmendinger. “That was a fast lap.”

NASCAR Sprint Cup points leader and Sprint All-Star Race winner Carl Edwards was third at 191.686 in the No. 99 Roush Fenway Racing Ford. He’ll be flanked on Row 2 by the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota of Denny Hamlin, who ran 191.367 mph.

Row 3 will be Jeff Burton and five-time defending Sprint Cup champion Jimmie Johnson, followed by David Reutimann, David Ragan, Ricky Stenhouse and Clint Bowyer. Among other drivers of note, Tony Stewart was 21st, Dale Earnhardt Jr. qualified 24th and Kevin Harvick was 27th.

Failing to qualify were Scott Riggs, Tony Raines, Scott Wimmer, T.J. Bell and Andy Lally.

There is no NASCAR activity at the track on Friday, with the final two rounds of NASCAR Sprint Cup practice scheduled for 11:30 a.m. and 12:50 p.m. Saturday. Both will be televised live on SPEED.

Edwards comes into Sunday’s race with a lead of 24 points over Johnson. Kyle Busch (-37) is third, followed by the now-clean-shaven Dale Earnhardt Jr. (-52) and Kevin Harvick (-54).

Tom Jensen is the Editor in Chief of SPEED.com, Senior NASCAR Editor at RACER and a contributing Editor for TruckSeries.com. You can follow him online at twitter.com/tomjensen100.
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