Edwards Wins Pole for Crown Royal Presents the Jeff Kyle 400 at the Brickyard; Kyle Busch Wins Lilly Diabetes 250
July 25, 2015 | By IMS
Joe Gibbs Racing’s Carl Edwards won the pole for the Crown Royal Presents the Jeff Kyle 400 at the Brickyard at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Edwards drove his No. 19 Stanley Toyota to his 15th career pole and first in 11 races at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway with a lap of 183.464 mph. In searching for his first win at Indianapolis on Sunday, Edwards will look to improve upon his best-ever performance at IMS when he finished as the runner-up to Jimmie Johnson in 2008.
“After yesterday, this is amazing,” Edwards said. “We started so slow yesterday and we struggled. We buckled down and worked hard. I’m proud of my guys. This is the first pole at the Brickyard for Toyota. Stanley has been behind us 100 percent, not just me, but our entire program. This is big.”
Due to the new high-drag aerodynamic package on Sprint Cup Series cars, Crown Royal 400 at the Brickyard qualifying was modified to a two-round format. Each car posted a time for one lap in the first round, with the 12 fastest cars advancing to a second round, where one more single-lap run was used to determine the polesitter.
“It worked out well. I like this style of qualifying,” Edwards said. “You feel like you have all the pressure, and I like that.
“The first round, we weren’t the fastest car. I watched the clouds and the timing worked out pretty well, and I thought I’m going to be pretty aggressive on this second one. Plus, Kyle Busch was talking smack about how he was going to beat me in the second round, so I was really motivated from that. Then, after going through Turns 1 and 2, I thought ‘This is going to be a really good lap.”’
Joey Logano and David Ragan qualified second and third behind Edwards – the same top 3 qualifiers as a week ago at New Hampshire.
“We got a good start,” said Logano, who drove his No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford to a lap of 183.139 mph. “David (Ragan) and I were just laughing up here, saying it was the same top three cars that started last weekend in Loudon. Completely different racetrack, completely different package, the same cars are fast.
“Second always hurts, but it’s nice to be up close to the front. It’s going to be a tough race for sure, but we always want to get that win for Roger (Penske). He’s been trying for years to get that first stock car win here at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. We’re going to try to do what we can to do his best shot at it.”
Rounding out the top-10 qualifiers from today’s action were two-time Crown Royal at the Brickyard winner Tony Stewart (2005-07), Kyle Larson, reigning NASCAR Sprint Cup champion Kevin Harvick, Clint Bowyer, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kyle Busch and Jamie McMurray.
Four-time Crown Royal 400 at the Brickyard winner (2006, ’08, ’09, ’12) and six-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson qualified 12th, with five-time Brickyard 400 winner (1994, ’98, ’01, ’04, ‘14) Jeff Gordon of nearby Pittsboro, Indiana, qualifying 19th for his final Sprint Cup race at Indianapolis.
The 160-lap Crown Royal Presents the Jeff Kyle 400 at the Brickyard starts Sunday at 3:50 p.m.
Busch wins Lilly Diabetes 250: Kyle Busch continued his Saturday domination at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, catching Ryan Blaney on the last lap for his second win at the Lilly Diabetes 250.
Blaney led Laps 76-99, but a bobble coming out of Turn 2 on the last lap after negotiating lapped traffic allowed Busch, who started on the pole, to dart to the inside for a pass on the back straight and a win by .421 of a second.
“I just got close enough to make him mess up and made him get tight off (Turn) 2 and then I was able to capitalize underneath him when he lost his momentum,” said Busch, who won his first XFINITY race at IMS in 2013 and has led 206 of 400 laps in the four-year history of the event. “The Monster Energy Camry was the class of the field. We should’ve won this thing going away, but I guess we had to make it exciting. Hopefully it was exciting down the last lap for the fans.”
Blaney took full blame for falling three turns short of the win.
“It was my fault, obviously,” said Blaney, driver of the No. 22 Discount Tire Ford. “You saw it. I screwed up. The crew did not deserve that. I dropped the ball for them today. I take full responsibility. I got tight and got in too deep and didn’t get right off the corner. I threw it away. It’s a pretty bad feeling to throw one away at the Brickyard. There was no pressure for 25 laps and then the last one – I just made a mistake.”
Daniel Suarez finished third in his No. 18 ARRIS Honda, followed by Paul Menard in the No. 33 Richmond/Menards Chevrolet, Elliott Sadler in the No. 1 OneMain Financial Ford, reigning Sprint Cup Series winner Kevin Harvick in the No. 88 Morton Buildings Chevrolet and Kyle Larson in the No. 42 Dixie Chopper/Big Machine Records/Jacobsen Chevrolet.
Regan Smith finished eighth in his No. 7 AmericasPower.org Chevrolet, and in doing so earned a $100,000 bonus in the NASCAR XFINITY Series “Dash 4 Cash” program.
Busch, who qualified ninth for the Crown Royal Presents the Jeff Kyle 400 at the Brickyard, will attempt to win his third Sprint Cup race in a row and fourth in his last five starts.