With only two races remaining before the start of the Chase for the Championship, Brad Keselowski established some significant momentum by winning what he called the most important pole of his career for the Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway.

"Boy, this feels good," Keselowski said after traversing the Lady in Black in just 27.492 seconds at 178.874 mph to edge Kurt Busch for the top starting spot for Sunday night's big race.


The pole was his first of the season, his first at Darlington and the ninth of his career. The 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion has only a single top-5 in his career at The Track Too Tough to Tame but Keselowski believes the low downforce package used this weekend plays right into his strength as driver.

"For my team, we haven’t had, to date I would say, as strong of a year as what we had last year, and I think that kind of wears on everybody a little bit, including myself," Keselowski said. "But I feel like we have positive momentum, and you always want to see results that showcase that, and this is one of those results that I feel like we can carry for the next 12 weeks.

"I’m just really pleased with today’s qualifying effort and the momentum we’re carrying."

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Kurt Busch was the fastest in the first round but lost speed during the second and third rounds of knockout qualifying -- both won by Keselowski.

Busch was second fastest in that final and lineup deciding round.

Kevin Harvick won the Southern 500 from the pole last season and qualified third, followed by Joey Logano and Jeff Gordon.

Despite just missing out on the pole, Harvick didn’t seem worried about the challenge posed by Keselowski and his fastest lap. Instead, he’s actually really optimistic about his speed in race trim for the laps that matter the most.

"I feel a lot better about it in race trim than I did in qualifying trim," the defending Sprint Cup champion said. "We try to concentrate on that the most, because there is so much falloff. The cars are going to slide around so much that I really feel like the cars need to be as manageable as you can make them throughout the night.

"It’s really not about the first two or three laps. You’ve got to be able to stay in there and be able to maneuver your car and be comfortable and keep it off the wall for at least 400 miles so that you can be around at the end. So, we’ll try to take care of our car and make sure we do everything right and get our car adjusted so that we’re ready for the last 100 miles of the race."

Josh Wise, Timmy Hill and Travis Kvapil failed to qualify for the 43-car field. The Southern 500 rolls off on Sunday at 7 p.m. and will air on NBC and MRN Radio. The complete starting lineup for the event can be found below.

1. Brad Keselowski
2. Kurt Busch
3. Kevin Harvick
4. Joey Logano
5. Jeff Gordon
6. Denny Hamlin
7. Martin Truex Jr
8. Ricky Stenhouse Jr
9. Ryan Blaney
10. Kyle Busch
11. Aric Almirola
12. Paul Menard
13. Carl Edwards
14. Matt Kenseth
15. Kasey Kahne
16. Kyle Larson
17. Tony Stewart
18. Trevor Bayne
19. Jimmie Johnson
20. Jamie McMurray
21. David Ragan
22. Chase Elliott
23. Ryan Newman
24. Greg Biffle
25. Matt DiBenedetto
26. Dale Earnhardt Jr.
27. Justin Allgaier
28. Clint Bowyer
29. Austin Dillon
30. Danica Patrick
31. Landon Cassill
32. Casey Mears
33. Sam Hornish, Jr.
34. AJ Allmendinger
35. Alex Bowman
36. JJ Yeley
37. Cole Whitt
38. David Gilliland
39. Michael Annett
40. Brett Moffitt
41. Jeb Burton
42. Mike Bliss
43. TJ Bell

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