Kurt Busch is set to start from the pole position in the third and final race of the first round of the 2018 NASCAR Cup Series playoffs, the Bank of America Roval 400.
Stewart-Haas Racing’s Kurt Busch took the pole position for the inaugural NASCAR Cup Series race at the Charlotte Motor Speedway roval, the Bank of America Roval 400. The pole position is his fourth of the season and the 26th of his Cup Series career.
Busch took the pole position for the 29th race of the 36-race 2018 Cup Series season and the third race of the 10-race 2018 playoffs in his #41 Ford by recording a top lap time of 76.805 seconds (106.868 miles per hour) around the 17-turn, 2.28-mile (3.669-kilometer) Charlotte Motor Speedway roval in Concord, North Carolina.
Set to start alongside Busch on the front row for this race is the highest qualifying Chevrolet driver of the race. This driver is JTG Daugherty Racing’s A.J. Allmendinger, who qualified in second place in his #47 Chevrolet.
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Aside of Busch taking the pole position for the race, Chevrolet drivers took each of the positions in the top six on the starting grid. Hendrick Motorsports teammates Alex Bowman, Chase Elliott and Jimmie Johnson qualified in third, fourth and sixth place in the #88 Chevrolet, #9 Chevrolet and #48 Chevrolet, respectively, and Chip Ganassi Racing’s Kyle Larson qualified in fifth in his #42 Chevrolet.
Stewart-Haas Racing’s Clint Bowyer and Chip Ganassi Racing’s Jamie McMurray are set to share the fourth row on the starting grid after qualifying in seventh and eighth place in their #14 Ford and #1 Chevrolet, respectively. Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney and JTG Daugherty Racing’s Chris Buescher are set to share the fifth row on the starting grid after qualifying in ninth and 10th in their #12 Ford and #37 Chevrolet, respectively.
Joe Gibbs Racing’s Erik Jones is the highest qualifying Toyota driver of the race. He qualified in 12th place in his #20 Toyota and is set to start alongside Richard Childress Racing’s Daniel Hemric, who qualified in 11th in his #8 Chevrolet for just his second career Cup Series race.
As expected, the qualifying session for this 109-lap race featured a high number of mistakes by several drivers, and the cars of these drivers sustained damage at some point throughout the session as a result of these mistakes. The 16 playoff drivers, who were certainly not immune to having issues, are all scattered throughout the top 27 on the starting grid.
Here are the full qualifying results for the 2018 Bank of America Roval 400 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway roval.
| Qualifying Results |
| 1st – Kurt Busch |
| 2nd – A.J. Allmendinger |
| 3rd – Alex Bowman |
| 4th – Chase Elliott |
| 5th – Kyle Larson |
| 6th – Jimmie Johnson |
| 7th – Clint Bowyer |
| 8th – Jamie McMurray |
| 9th – Ryan Blaney |
| 10th – Chris Buescher |
| 11th – Daniel Hemric |
| 12th – Erik Jones |
| 13th – Martin Truex Jr. |
| 14th – Kyle Busch |
| 15th – Joey Logano |
| 16th – Trevor Bayne |
| 17th – Daniel Suarez |
| 18th – Michael McDowell |
| 19th – Kevin Harvick |
| 20th – Aric Almirola |
| 21st – William Byron |
| 22nd – Paul Menard |
| 23rd – Ricky Stenhouse Jr. |
| 24th – Austin Dillon |
| 25th – Brad Keselowski |
| 26th – Ty Dillon |
| 27th – Denny Hamlin |
| 28th – Matt DiBenedetto |
| 29th – Ryan Newman |
| 30th – David Ragan |
| 31st – Justin Marks |
| 32nd – Regan Smith |
| 33rd – Cole Whitt |
| 34th – Darrell Wallace Jr. |
| 35th – Ross Chastain |
| 36th – J.J. Yeley |
| 37th – Jeffrey Earnhardt |
| 38th – Landon Cassill |
| 39th – Stanton Barrett |
| 40th – Timmy Hill |
Tune in to NBC on Sunday, September 30 for the live broadcast of the Bank of America Roval 400 from the Charlotte Motor Speedway roval to see which 12 drivers will advance to the second round of the 2018 NASCAR Cup Series playoffs, the round of 12, and which four drivers will be eliminated from playoff contention.