Brad Keselowski earns pole for race at New Hampshire
Is Brad Keselowski setting up to go two-for-two at New Hampshire in 2014?
The 2012 Sprint Cup champion and winner of the first race of the 2014 Chase at Chicago on Sunday won the pole Friday at New Hampshire, site of the second race of the Chase.
In July, Keselowski led 138 laps and won at New Hampshire. Because of that win earlier in the year, six-time champion Jimmie Johnson called Keselowski's team the team to beat before Friday's qualifying session.
“Yeah, I would expect him to be in a similar position for two reasons," Johnson said. "One, he had so much more pace than the rest of the field here in the spring race that it’s hard to believe that everybody could cover that gap and get back to him. And then when we went to Richmond, which wasn’t too long ago as a short track and they had that form there, too. So, I’d definitely say those guys are tough to handle.”
Keselowski won at Richmond, the last race before the Chase. Johnson turned out to be prophetic for Friday. Will be prophetic for Sunday?
Jamie McMurray qualified second, three-hundredths of a second behind Keselowski. Kevin Harvick qualified third, while Denny Hamlin was fourth and Kyle Busch was fifth.
Here's how all 16 of the Chasers stack up for New Hampshire
1. Brad Keselowski
3. Kevin Harvick
4. Denny Hamlin
5. Kyle Busch
6. Jimmie Johnson
7. Joey Logano
8. Carl Edwards
9. Ryan Newman
11. Dale Earnhardt Jr.
13. Jeff Gordon
15. Kurt Busch
16. Matt Kenseth
17. Kasey Kahne
21. Aric Almirola
26. Greg Biffle
27. A.J. Allmendinger
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Nick Bromberg is the editor of From The Marbles on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
