Matt Kenseth is not particularly known for his qualifying. Yet, when he does qualify well the competition better look out. Posting a lap of 27.394 seconds at a speed of 179.514 mph, Kenseth earned only his fourth career pole and first since Kansas in 2005. The driver of the No. 17 DEWALT Ford Fusion appears happy with his car for the first time in weeks.

“We’ve had a lot of speed in our car all day today for some reason, which has been real encouraging.  We made a lot of changes on our car today.  We’ve been able to make it worse and we’ve been able to make it better and kind of feel what was going on, so I felt really good about that.  Our mock-up run was actually really fast.  I didn’t think we’d have a serious shot at the pole, but our car was driving really good and, actually, for once when it quit raining I was glad that we got to qualify today.”

“The car seemed to have speed from when we unloaded it,” crew chief Drew Blickensderfer told HardcoreRaceFans.com. “Everything we did, uncharacteristic to how we’ve struggled the past few weeks, responded to changes. We could make it tight and we could make it loose. That’s all you can ask for because you can find a happy medium.”

After starting the season off with a bang, sweeping the season’s opening two weekends at Daytona and California, Kenseth and the No. 17 team have struggled to say the least. A blown engine just six laps into the third race of the year at Las Vegas took the wind out of the team’s sails. Since their win at Fontana, Kenseth has only one top-10, a fifth in Texas.

“I would say as a company we’re really missing it on the short tracks right now,” Blickensderfer added. “We’re going to work really hard on to fix that stuff. The banked fast stuff we have a pretty good grip on, but we need to get better on the flatter stuff.”

When Kenseth has qualified on the pole in the past he has normally had success. Despite finishing 40th after his first pole at Dover in 2002, Kenseth has one win and one fifth-place finish.

“I hope we’ll race good,” Kenseth said. “We really worked on race setup all day and really didn’t work on qualifying setup very well.  After we got done with race practice, you never know – today doesn’t really mean a ton for tomorrow – but it’s the most confident I’ve been in my car since I don’t know when.  It’s the best car we’ve had all year by far in practice.”

Jeff Gordon was second fastest of the session, with a lap of 27.494 seconds at a speed of 178.861 mph. Backing up a quick time in practice, the driver of the No. 24 DuPont/National Guard ESGR Chevy will be looking to pass veteran Cale Yarborough on the all-time win list with a victory in Saturday’s Southern 500.

Stewart-Haas Racing’s Ryan Newman was third fastest, while Sam Hornish Jr. and rookie Joey Logano rounded out the top-5.

"The car felt real good," Hornish told HardcoreRaceFans.com following his qualifying run. "I drove her into [Turn] three on the first lap a little bit too hard and ended up screwing up my time a little bit. I don't know if we would have had enough to compete for a pole, but I know we had a little bit left in it."

"It was pretty good," Logano said of his lap "A little bit tight, but I'd rather have it a little bit tight than a little bit loose."

The crowd at the Darlington Raceway was brought to their feet when Jimmie Johnson lost control of the No. 48 Lowe’s Impala in the second turn. The two-time Darlington winner had the rear of the car break loose and could do little but hold on as the car backed into the outside wall and then made contact with the inside retaining wall. The team was forced to a back-up car.

Jeremy Mayfield and rookie Scott Speed failed to make the show.

Saturday’s Southern 500 presented by GoDaddy.com is scheduled for a 7:20pm E.T. start, with coverage on your local FOX and MRN affiliates. Be sure to check back to HardcoreRaceFans.com for all the latest news and developments from the ‘Lady In Black.’

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