AVONDALE, Ariz.?Matt Kenseth did his teammate a favor.
In winning the pole of Sunday?s Kobalt Tools 500 at Phoenix International Raceway, Kenseth?the next-to-last driver to make a qualifying attempt on Saturday?moved Roush Fenway Racing teammate Carl Edwards from eighth to ninth in the starting order.
That?s a boon to Chase leader Edwards, who will start on the much more manageable inside row, whereas Tony Stewart, three points behind Edwards, will start eighth, but on the outside where the grip is tenuous at best.
Kenseth toured the repaved, reconfigured one-mile track in 26.258 seconds (137.101 mph) to edge AJ Allmendinger (136.446 mph) for the Coors Light pole award, Kenseth?s third of the season and the seventh of his career.
Marcos Ambrose (136.307 mph), Allmendinger?s teammate at Richard Petty Motorsports, qualified third, followed by Mark Martin and Martin Truex Jr., who ran identical speeds (136.080 mph).
Conditions for qualifying were radically different from practice sessions a day earlier. On Friday, under a cloudy sky, most of the field ran faster than Edwards? qualifying record of 137.279 mph, set in February.
With the sun out on Saturday, and the track considerably hotter, drivers ran roughly a full second slower on average than they had Friday.
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