Kyle Busch took his car from the body shop to the top of the speed charts, qualifying No. 1 for Saturday afternoon’s History 300 NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
Busch wrecked the car during practice Thursday. According to a report on ESPN, per NASCAR rules, a team is allowed to take a damaged car off-site to repair it, and that’s what Busch’s team apparently did, taking it back to Joe Gibbs Racing’s headquarters in suburban Huntersville, N.C.
The car came back seemingly better than the original, as Busch made it look easy with a best lap of 183.094 mph.
Just like he’ll start in Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600 Sprint Cup race, Brad Keselowski earned the outside pole in NNS qualifying with a speed of 182.655 mph.
Kyle Larson (182.199), Dylan Kwasniewski (181.788) and Kevin Harvick (181.543) rounded out the top-five.
Sixth through 10th were Brian Scott (180.898), Matt Kenseth (180.349), Regan Smith (179.910), NNS points leader Chase Elliott (179.892) and Elliott Sadler (179.700).
Here’s the starting grid for Saturday afternoon’s History 300, with the green flag set to fall at 2:45 pm ET:
Row 1 Kyle Busch, Brad Keselowski
Row 2 Kyle Larson, Dylan Kwasniewski
Row 3 Kevin Harvick, Brian Scott
Row 4 Matt Kenseth, Regan Smith
Row 5 Chase Elliott, Elliott Sadler
Row 6 Ty Dillon, Jeb Burton (making his NNS debut)
Row 7 Chris Buescher, Landon Cassill
Row 8 James Bueschder, Trevor Bayne
Row 9 Chad Boat, Mike Bliss
Row 10 Ross Chastain, Brendan Gaughan
Row 11 JJ Yeley, David Starr
Row 12 Ryan Reed, Johnny Sauter
Row 13 Josh Wise, John Wes Townley
Row 14 Dakoda Armstrong, Ryan Sieg
Row 15 Jeffrey Earnhardt, Kyle Fowler
Row 16 Jeremy Clements, Tommy Joe Martins
Row 17 Carlos Contreras, Eric McClure
Row 18 Kevin Lepage, Derrike Cope
Row 19 Harrison Rhodes, Joey Gase
Row 20 Chris Cockrum, Tanner Berryhill
Follow me @JerryBonkowski