AVONDALE, Arizona — Kyle Busch set a track record to claim the pole at Phoenix International Raceway, where Brad Keselowski got a jump on Jimmie Johnson in their tight championship race. Busch ran a lap of 138.766 mph (223.322 kph) in Friday's qualifying session to win the pole in his Toyota. It broke the track record of 137.279 mph (220.929 kph) set by Carl Edwards in 2011. Keselowski out-qualified Johnson by 10 positions at one of the five-time Nascar champion's best race tracks. It was an unusual twist for the top two contenders, as Johnson is typically the better qualifier and Keselowski has struggled in that area through the first eight races of the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship. And there should be no question which driver would be in control at Phoenix, where Johnson is a four-time winner and has a 5.3 average finish and Keselowski has only one career top-five. But when the qualifying session was over, Keselowski had locked down the 14th starting spot for Sunday's race, while Johnson was in 24th. It's the lowest qualifying position for Johnson in a Chase race since the 2010 opener at New Hampshire, and his worst this season since the August Bristol race. Johnson struggled with the sun glare on the first turn. “The glare was pretty bad getting into the turn, then getting the power down was tough for me up off of two,” he said. “Three and four were pretty good, I felt like on both of my laps, but I struggled oddly enough down there this time.” Johnson moved into the points lead with his win at Martinsville two weeks ago, and widened the margin to seven points with a second-straight victory last week at Texas. But Keselowski is eager to reclaim the top spot he held down for five weeks of the Chase, and knows how to get it back. “I'm running to win, whatever that means,” he said. “Win the race and things become a lot easier. You don't have to worry about those things.” Keselowski has yet to flinch in the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship, which is down to the final two races and realistically only two drivers. Keselowski opened the Chase with a win at Chicago, surrendered it to Johnson the next week at New Hampshire, grabbed it back the next week at Dover and held it for three more weeks through Kansas. Then Johnson snatched it back with a win at Martinsville to take a two-point lead in the standings, and widened the margin to seven points with a second consecutive victory last weekend at Texas. But Keselowski went down swinging — he was the leader on three restarts in the final 19 laps, only coming up short on the hold-your-breath, door-banging final dash to the finish with Johnson. Busch's pole position was a big improvement from a year ago, when he came into the race in crisis. He had to fight to keep his job after intentionally wrecking Ron Hornaday Jr. in a Truck Series race at Texas a week earlier, which led NASCAR to park him for the rest of the weekend, qualified poorly and finished 34th. Martin Truex Jr. qualified second and Denny Hamlin was third to give Toyota the top three starting spots. All three Toyota drivers thought the track surface and grip was difficult, with Hamlin and Truex even calling it “treacherous.” Kasey Kahne qualified fourth and was followed by Aric Almirola, Kurt Busch and Paul Menard. Regan Smith was eighth, Tony Stewart was ninth and Mark Martin rounded out the top 10. — AP
