Kahne on pole for Cup race at Martinsville

Kasey Kahne celebrates winning the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Coors Light Pole Award with Miss Coors Light

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Kasey Kahne rewarded new sponsor HendrickCars.com the pole position for Sunday's Goody's Fast Relief 500 at the 1/2-mile Martinsville, VA paperclip oval. Kevin Harvick will start 2nd giving Chevy the front row sweep.

The Toyotas of Denny Hamlin and Clint Bowyer make up row 2 and Ryan Newman's Chevy rounds out the top-5.

With a 97.128 mph (19.496 seconds) lap in Saturday's time trials, Kahne edged Kevin Harvick (97.048 mph) for the top starting spot in Sunday's Goody's Fast Relief 500 at Martinsville Speedway. Kahne claimed his second Coors Light Pole Award of the season, his first at Martinsville and the 24th of his career.

Four-time Martinsville winner Denny Hamlin (97.003 mph) will start third after running the exact same speed as Clint Bowyer. Hamlin won the tiebreaker for the position based on current owners' points. Ryan Newman (96.988 mph) will start fifth.

In his first year in the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, Kahne has posted an average starting position of 7.8, but his average finish has been a disappointing 26.6.

"It's a tough track to qualify and a tough track to race — always has been one of my tougher ones over the years," said Kahne, who has led a total of 19 laps at the famed short track (average finish of 20.7, one top-five and two top-10s in 16 starts). "I'm glad we can start up front, have a great pit stall — that No. 1 stall — I think that helps throughout the whole race with track position.

"Hopefully, we'll have a solid day [on Sunday]. That's what we need to do. We've had great Fridays and Saturdays but just haven't put together a Sunday yet."

Brian Vickers, Brad Keselowski, Kyle Busch, Jeff Gordon and Joey Logano will start from positions 6 through 10, respectively.

Lineup

+ Set by Owner Points
* Denotes Rookie