Race Weekend Central

Kyle Busch Wins XFINITY Atlanta Pole

It’s back to business as usual for Kyle Busch, whose first NASCAR XFINITY Series race of 2016 will be started from the pole.

Busch, driving Joe Gibbs Racing’s No. 18 that was piloted by Bobby Labonte in the season-opening race at Daytona International Speedway, will start first for today’s Heads Up Georgia 250 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. In doing so, Busch ran a speed of 185.499 mph and was one of three drivers to clock in at under 30 seconds.

Just like Friday’s practice sessions for the race, Joe Gibbs’ cars were a force to be reckoned with. Behind Busch, Erik Jones and Daniel Suarez will start second and third, respectively. Jones ran a speed of 185.078 mph in his No. 20, while Suarez ran 185.022 mph. Both are running the full schedule for Gibbs this season.

Behind them, two more teammates rounded out the top 5: Kyle Larson in fourth (184.689) and Brennan Poole in fifth (183.333).

Ty Dillon, Brad Keselowski, Ryan Sieg, Brendan Gaughan and Kevin Harvick rounded out the top 10.

As 40 cars were entered for the race, no teams failed to qualify — a stark difference from the eight DNQs at Daytona last week.

The full lineup is here.

Coverage for the Heads Up Georgia 250 begins today at 1 p.m. on Fox Sports 1. It will be run as a double-header with the Camping World Truck Series, which will compete later Saturday.

About the author

Rutherford is the managing editor of Frontstretch, a position he gained in 2015 after serving on the editing staff for two years. At his day job, he's a journalist covering music and rock charts at Billboard. He lives in New York City, but his heart is in Ohio -- you know, like that Hawthorne Heights song.

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