NASCAR: 2018 Coca-Cola 600 qualifying results – Kyle Busch takes pole
By Asher Fair
Kyle Busch is set to start the 2018 Coca-Cola 600, the longest race of the NASCAR Cup Series season, from the pole position.
In Thursday’s qualifying session, Kyle Busch took the pole position in his #18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota for the 2018 Coca-Cola 600, the 13th race of the 2018 NASCAR Cup Series season. He is set to lead the field to the green flag when that race takes place this Sunday.
Busch recorded a lap at 191.836 miles per hour (28.1490 seconds) around the four-turn, 1.5-mile Charlotte Motor Speedway quad oval in Concord, North Carolina to claim his third pole position of the season and first since he took the pole position for the Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway last month.
Team Penske’s Joey Logano was the highest qualifier of a Ford car in his #12 Ford. He is set to start the race alongside Busch on the front row in second place. Richard Childress Racing’s Ryan Newman was the highest qualifier of a Chevrolet car in his #31 Chevrolet. He is set to start the race in sixth place.
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All three of Busch’s teammates qualified in the top 10. Denny Hamlin and Erik Jones locked out the second row in their #11 Toyota and #20 Toyota in third and fourth place, respectively, and Daniel Suarez qualified in 10th in his #19 Toyota.
There were four Ford drivers, four Toyota drivers and four Chevrolet drivers who made it into the third and final round of qualifying, and those are the 12 drivers who are set to start the race in the top 12 as a result of it. That said, the Toyota drivers and the Ford drivers still dominated the Chevrolet drivers as a whole, as has been the case in pretty much every qualifying session so far this season.
Here are the full qualifying results for the 2018 Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
| Rank | Driver | Car, Team, Manufacturer |
| 1 | Kyle Busch | #18, Joe Gibbs Racing, Toyota |
| 2 | Joey Logano | #22, Team Penske, Ford |
| 3 | Denny Hamlin | #11, Joe Gibbs Racing, Toyota |
| 4 | Erik Jones | #20, Joe Gibbs Racing, Toyota |
| 5 | Brad Keselowski | #2, Team Penske, Ford |
| 6 | Ryan Newman | #31, Richard Childress Racing, Chevrolet |
| 7 | Jamie McMurray | #1, Chip Ganassi Racing, Chevrolet |
| 8 | Ryan Blaney | #12, Team Penske, Ford |
| 9 | Aric Almirola | #10, Stewart-Haas Racing, Ford |
| 10 | Daniel Suarez | #19, Joe Gibbs Racing, Toyota |
| 11 | Kyle Larson | #42, Chip Ganassi Racing, Chevrolet |
| 12 | Austin Dillon | #3, Richard Childress Racing, Chevrolet |
| 13 | Ricky Stenhouse Jr. | #17, Roush Fenway Racing, Ford |
| 14 | Paul Menard | #21, Wood Brothers Racing, Ford |
| 15 | Martin Truex Jr. | #78, Furniture Row Racing, Toyota |
| 16 | Kurt Busch | #41, Stewart-Haas Racing, Ford |
| 17 | Matt Kenseth | #6, Roush Fenway Racing, Ford |
| 18 | Chris Buescher | #37, JTG Daugherty Racing, Chevrolet |
| 19 | David Ragan | #38, Front Row Motorsports, Ford |
| 20 | Ty Dillon | #13, Germain Racing, Chevrolet |
| 21 | William Byron | #24, Hendrick Motorsports, Chevrolet |
| 22 | Chase Elliott | #9, Hendrick Motorsports, Chevrolet |
| 23 | Jimmie Johnson | #48, Hendrick Motorsports, Chevrolet |
| 24 | Darrell Wallace Jr. | #43, Richard Petty Motorsports, Chevrolet |
| 25 | Ross Chastain | #15, Premium Motorsports, Chevrolet |
| 26 | Kasey Kahne | #95, Leavine Family Racing, Chevrolet |
| 27 | Alex Bowman | #88, Hendrick Motorsports, Chevrolet |
| 28 | Clint Bowyer | #14, Stewart-Haas Racing, Ford |
| 29 | Michael McDowell | #34, Front Row Motorsports, Ford |
| 30 | A.J. Allmendinger | #47, JTG Daugherty Racing, Chevrolet |
| 31 | Matt DiBenedetto | #32, Go Fas Racing, Ford |
| 32 | Parker Kligerman | #96, Gaunt Brothers Racing, Toyota |
| 33 | Corey Lajoie | #72, TriStar Motorsports, Chevrolet |
| 34 | Gray Gaulding | #23, BK Racing, Toyota |
| 35 | Landon Cassill | #00, StarCom Racing, Chevrolet |
| 36 | Timmy Hill | #66, MBM Motorsports, Toyota |
| 37 | Jeffrey Earnhardt | #55, Premium Motorsports, Chevrolet |
| 38 | B.J. McLeod | #52, Rick Ware Racing, Chevrolet |
| 39 | Kevin Harvick | #4, Stewart-Haas Racing, Ford |
| 40 | J.J. Yeley | #7, NY Racing Team, Chevrolet |
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The 2018 Coca-Cola 600 is set to be broadcast live on Fox Sports 1 starting at 6:00 p.m. ET on Sunday, May 27.