Kahne wins Darlington pole with record lap

Kasey Kahne

Kasey Kahne won the pole for Saturday night's Showtime Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway.

Touring the 1.366-mile circuit at 181.254 mph (27.131 seconds), Kahne shattered the qualifying record of 180.370 mph set last year by Jamie McMurray. The pole was Kahne's first of the season and the 21st of his Cup Series career.

Ryan Newman qualified second at 180.429 mph, followed by Denny Hamlin (180.132 mph), Carl Edwards (179.980 mph) and seven-time Darlington winner Jeff Gordon (179.829 mph). Marcos Ambrose, A.J. Allmendinger, Brian Vickers, Tony Stewart and Brad Keselowski will start from positions 6-10, respectively.

Starting from the pole is nothing new to Kahne, who qualified first at Darlington in three of his first four visits to the Lady in Black. Finishes are another issue. Kahne's best result at Darlington is a third in 2005, but in the past five races he has fared no better than 20th.

This is Kahne's first Darlington pole, however, since the introduction of NASCAR's new car in 2007.

"We've came pretty close a few times with this car, but we just haven't been quite as fast," Kahne said. "I think the first three times we qualified here we were on the pole when I first came into this series [actually three of four].

"I guess I've always just taken to qualifying at this place. I like running right against the wall and carrying the speed and the momentum. We hadn't been quite as fast in a couple years and [Friday] we were really fast. It was great. The lap felt awesome. I knew we definitely had a good chance at the pole when I made the lap."

Results

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