Kyle Busch powers to record setting pole at Charlotte

CONCORD, NC - Kyle Busch captured the pole for Saturday's Bank of America 500 on a record-breaking night of qualifying at Charlotte Motor Speedway on Thursday that saw the fastest lap on a mile-and-a-half track in NASCAR history.<br /> <br /> Busch stood atop the leaderboard at the end of the third round of knockout qualifying with a lap of 197.390 mph to notch his third pole of the season, coming just one week after he posted his first top-five finish in the Chase for the Sprint Cup and his best finish since coming home second in the Brickyard 400 in August.<br /> <br /> Jeff Gordon was second with a lap of 197.217mph, followed by Denny Hamlin (197.087), Tony Stewart (196.542) and Ryan Newman (196.442).<br /> <br /> With the Chase entering the halfway point at Charlotte this weekend, Busch and his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin find themselves both in the top five in points, with the third JGR entry of Matt Kenseth sitting seventh in the standings.<br /> <br /> "We're edging our way towards the top," said Busch of JGR's surge. "It certainly feels good that we're heading in the right direction at the right time of the year.<br /> <br /> "We certainly have been fighting really hard at Joe Gibbs Racing to get ourselves up to running with the level of competition that we've been seeing from our competitors. Anything can happen, and there was a few bad races for a few guys last race in Kansas and for us now it's just about trying to come out of here with a solid finish at Charlotte and put ourselves in the best position possible."<br /> <br /> If the speeds in earlier practice sessions didn't set the tone for Thursday's qualifying sessions, the first round of knockout qualifying certainly did as Kasey Kahne set the early pace by shattering the track record with a lap of 197.976 mph to lead the opening round, topping the previous mark of 195.624 mph set by Hamlin in May of 2013. In all, 22 of the 24 drivers to advance were under the previous track record.<br /> <br /> With the gauntlet laid down, the top 24 moved onto the second round where Kurt Busch rocketed to the top of the leaderboard with a jaw-dropping lap of 198.771 mph, marking the fastest qualifying lap ever at a mile-and-a-half track - besting the previous mark of 198.282 mph posted this past April by Kevin Harvick at Texas Motor Speedway.<br /> <br /> For the third and final round, the top 12 drivers to advance began qualifying with a clean slate, but lap speeds were far below what was seen in the second round, with Kyle Busch setting the bar early with a lap more than a mile an hour slower than record-breaking lap set by Kurt Busch, who ultimately ended the night qualifying 11th.<br /> <br /> Harvick, who finished second in each of the first two rounds, qualified seventh. Other Chase contenders in the third round included Dale Earnhardt, Jr. (ninth) and Carl Edwards (tenth).<br /> <br /> Among the drivers who failed to advance to the third round was Kahne - who lost the pole and the track record