Matt Kenseth has taken pole for the Coke Zero 400 at Daytona.
Kenseth, who recently announced that he will leave Roush Fenway Racing at the end of the 2012 season, set the pace in his Zest-backed Ford, lapping the famous super speedway at a speed of 192.386s, marginally ahead of Chevrolete rivals Ryan Newman and Kasey Kahne.
Kenseth said that all credit for the pole goes to his crew.
“Our lap was obviously a good one. It was faster than the rest,” he said.
“I had very little to do with it, so qualifying at the speedway races is all about the car and the engine and those guys did a spectacular job at Roush all year long really in preparing our speedway cars.
“They’ve been really fast and Doug Yates and those guys have done a super job on the engines with the new fuel injection and the plate engines have run really good and had us competitive at both speedway races so far this year.”
Greg Biffle, Jeff Gordon, stalwart Bill Elliott, Casey Mears, AJ Allmendinger and Kentucky winner Brad Keselowski will start fourth to ninth, with Australian Marcos Ambrose starting from 10th.
Ambrose was mystified with the pace, but was pleased with his position.
“It’s hard to know where the speed comes from,” he said.
“It gets lost around this kind of place, but we’re still proud of our effort. I’ve been a lot worse at this place and I’ve just got to thank my team and Todd Parrott and the whole Stanley crew for giving me a good car here. We’ve got a great race car and looking forward to the race.”
See below for qualifying results for the Daytona 400
| POS | CAR | DRIVER | MAKE | SPONSOR | SPEED | TIME |
| 1 | 17 | Matt Kenseth | Ford | Zest | 192.386 | 46.781 |
| 2 | 39 | Ryan Newman | Chevrolet | Aspen Dental | 192.353 | -0.008 |
| 3 | 5 | Kasey Kahne | Chevrolet | HendrickCars.com | 192.291 | -0.023 |
| 4 | 16 | Greg Biffle | Ford | 3M | 192.139 | -0.060 |
| 5 | 24 | Jeff Gordon | Chevrolet | Pepsi Max | 192.061 | -0.079 |
| 6 | 50 | Bill Elliott | Chevrolet | Walmart | 192.012 | -0.091 |
| 7 | 13 | Casey Mears | Ford | GEICO | 191.934 | -0.110 |
| 8 | 22 | AJ Allmendinger | Dodge | Shell / Pennzoil | 191.894 | -0.120 |
| 9 | 2 | Brad Keselowski | Dodge | Miller Lite | 191.857 | -0.129 |
| 10 | 9 | Marcos Ambrose | Ford | DEWALT | 191.824 | -0.137 |
| 11 | 29 | Kevin Harvick | Chevrolet | Budweiser Folds of Honor | 191.799 | -0.143 |
| 12 | 99 | Carl Edwards | Ford | Subway | 191.710 | -0.165 |
| 13 | 27 | Paul Menard | Chevrolet | Quaker State / Menards | 191.681 | -0.172 |
| 14 | 42 | Juan Montoya | Chevrolet | Target | 191.579 | -0.197 |
| 15 | 21 | Trevor Bayne | Ford | Motorcraft | 191.497 | -0.217 |
| 16 | 48 | Jimmie Johnson | Chevrolet | Lowe’s | 191.477 | -0.222 |
| 17 | 43 | Aric Almirola | Ford | U.S. Air Force | 191.270 | -0.273 |
| 18 | 56 | Martin Truex Jr. | Toyota | NAPA Batteries | 191.245 | -0.279 |
| 19 | 20 | Joey Logano | Toyota | Dollar General | 191.229 | -0.283 |
| 20 | 31 | Jeff Burton | Chevrolet | Wheaties | 191.095 | -0.316 |
| 21 | 98 | Mike Bliss | Ford | Phil Parsons Racing | 190.986 | -0.343 |
| 22 | 18 | Kyle Busch | Toyota | Interstate Batteries | 190.945 | -0.353 |
| 23 | 11 | Denny Hamlin | Toyota | FedEx Office | 190.921 | -0.359 |
| 24 | 88 | Dale Earnhardt Jr. | Chevrolet | National Guard ‘An American Salute’ | 190.848 | -0.377 |
| 25 | 78 | Regan Smith | Chevrolet | Furniture Row / Farm American | 190.718 | -0.409 |
| 26 | 30 | David Stremme | Toyota | Stock Car Steel and Aluminum | 190.666 | -0.422 |
| 27 | 34 | David Ragan | Ford | MHP / 8 Hour Alert | 190.617 | -0.434 |
| 28 | 55 | Michael Waltrip | Toyota | Aaron’s Dream Machine | 190.597 | -0.439 |
| 29 | 15 | Clint Bowyer | Toyota | 5-hour Energy | 190.557 | -0.449 |
| 30 | 1 | Jamie McMurray | Chevrolet | Bass Pro Shops / NRA Museum | 190.553 | -0.450 |
| 31 | 26 | Josh Wise* | Ford | MDS Transport | 190.174 | -0.544 |
| 32 | 38 | David Gilliland | Ford | Glory Foods | 190.134 | -0.554 |
| 33 | 36 | Dave Blaney | Chevrolet | Golden Corral | 190.118 | -0.558 |
| 34 | 32 | Terry Labonte | Ford | C&J Energy | 190.046 | -0.576 |
| 35 | 51 | Kurt Busch | Chevrolet | Phoenix Construction Services | 189.994 | -0.589 |
| 36 | 87 | Joe Nemechek | Toyota | AM / FM Energy Wood & Pellet Stoves | 189.673 | -0.669 |
| 37 | 33 | Stephen Leicht* | Chevrolet | Little Joes Autos.com | 188.719 | -0.909 |
| 38 | 83 | Landon Cassill | Toyota | Burger King / Dr Pepper | 188.683 | -0.918 |
| 39 | 10 | David Reutimann | Chevrolet | CarportEmpire.com | 188.549 | -0.952 |
| 40 | 93 | Travis Kvapil | Toyota | Burger King | 187.939 | -1.107 |
| 41 | 47 | Bobby Labonte+ | Toyota | Kingsford | 186.505 | -1.475 |
| 42 | 14 | Tony Stewart | Chevrolet | Mobil 1 | – | – |
| 43 | 249 | J.J. Yeley | Toyota | Jay Robinson Inc. | 187.021 | -1.342 |
| DNQ | 23 | Robert Richardson Jr. | Toyota | North Texas Pipe | 186.834 | -1.390 |
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