Familiar cars will start at the front of Sunday’s NASCAR race

By Case Keefer (contact)

Friday, March 4, 2011 | 8:33 p.m.

Only four different drivers have won NASCAR’s annual Sprint Cup race in Las Vegas over the past eight years.

Three of those four will be in prime position to do it again Sunday when the 2011 Kobalt Tools 400 gets under way at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Las Vegas native and 2009 winner Kyle Busch, 2008 champion Carl Edwards and 2003-2004 winner Matt Kenseth occupy three of the top five positions after Friday’s qualifying round.

Kenseth won the pole by setting a track record with a 28.589-second lap at 188.884 mph.

“It feels good to have a pole,” Kenseth said. “You don’t get a chance to get one very often, so it feels cool.”

Kenseth will start in pole position for only the fifth time of his 12-year career. He’s also searching for his first NASCAR victory in more than two years.

Kenseth, who drives the No. 17 Crown Royal Ford, hasn’t won a race since February 2009 in Fontana, Calif.

“We worked hard at race practice today and had a lot of speed, but I needed to drive a little better,” Kenseth said. “At qualifying, obviously we had a lot of speed.”

Kenseth was the only driver to break the track record of 28.614 set by Kurt Busch last year. Kenseth’s Roush Fenway Racing teammate Carl Edwards came close.

Edwards registered a 28.704-second lap, which put him in third. He was slightly ahead of Greg Biffle’s time of 28.728 and a split second behind Marcos Ambrose’s 28.698.

All of the top four times came from men driving Fords.

“The first two rows are Fords,” Edwards said. “That’s a testament to how hard everyone has worked in our shops. They’ve done an amazing job. I think I speak for Marcos and all of my Ford teammates when I say we are happy to be driving these race cars right now.”

Kyle Busch, who drives the No. 18 Snickers Toyota, finished fifth with a speed of 187.565 mph. His older brother, Kurt Busch, had a disappointing showing and will start in 22nd position Sunday.

Last year’s winner and four-time Las Vegas champion Jimmie Johnson starts in 14th after a qualifying lap of 28.919 seconds. Last year, Johnson began in 20th and gradually worked his way up before taking the lead from Jeff Gordon with 16 laps to go.

“I have a feeling it’s going to be a really, really tough race,” Edwards said. “I hope it all goes well, but this is the state of the sport right now. Everyone is driving their hearts out with everything they’ve got. That’s what you’ll see on Sunday.”

Case Keefer can be reached at 948-2790 or [email protected]. Follow Case on Twitter at twitter.com/casekeefer.