Kenseth earns his first pole at Fontana

Matt Kenseth

Matt Kenseth won the Coors Light Pole Award at Auto Club Speedway in this season's first qualifying session at a 2-mile track.

Kenseth posted a high speed of 187.315 mph. This is Kenseth's first pole win at Fontana.

Brad Keselowski was second fastest and will line up next to Kenseth on Sunday.

Jimmie Johnson, Kevin Harvick and Clint Bowyer round out the top five starting lineup.

Denny Hamlin, who won the pole for last spring's race at Auto Club, qualified 13th, just missing a chance to qualify in the last round.

Kyle Busch won at Fontana last year and qualified 14th for this year's race.

Notable drivers who did not advance to the second round were No. 5 Kasey Kahne and No. 10 Danica Patrick who finished 27th-fastest.

Along with Hamlin and Kyle Busch, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Ryan Newman, Kurt Busch, Austin Dillon and Greg Biffle also did not advance to the final round of qualifying.

The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Auto Club 400 will be on Sunday, March 23 at 3 p.m. with TV coverage on FOX.

MATT KENSETH, No. 20 Dollar General Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Starting Position: 1st

How was your qualifying run?
“It was good, obviously. We unloaded and had some really good speed. We worked on race trim a little bit. It wasn’t driving quite like we hoped, but we did have some really good speed and that translated into qualifying trim. Jason (Ratcliff, crew chief) did a really good job the last two weeks of making good adjustments through the round and making it how we needed it for the last one. They gave me the car and really all I did was not mess it up, so they did a great job and glad we got it."

What did you mean when you told your crew chief after your fast lap that you’d talk about the speed of your lap?
“If I wasn’t going to talk about it on the radio, I’m probably not going to talk about it with anyone else. I wanted to talk to him (crew chief Jason Ratcliff) about the adjustments and the balance change just so we’d have good notes when we come back or when we go to some of these other tracks that we’re racing with three round qualifying like Texas — places like that. I wanted to talk about that and tell him a little bit of the lap while it was fresh in my mind so they could get their notes made."

What does winning the pole do for you as you prepare for Sunday’s race?
“I tell you track position is important everywhere. This is probably one of the best tracks we go to as far as passing with all the different lanes unless you’re stuck on the top. There’s a lot of options here. This place is really wide, it’s very challenging as a driver, but very fun as well. If your car is handling a certain way you can find a groove that can help your car and move around a lot. Even in qualifying it was interesting how drastically different our grooves were when we qualified. It’s a really fun race track, especially when your car is driving good and doing the things you need it to do. Track position is important, but I feel it is a track you can come from anywhere if you have the best car and get up through there and get some passing."

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