Kasey Kahne, No. 9 Budweiser Ford Fusion
Qualifying Results for the Shelby American at Las Vegas Motor Speedway

• Kasey Kahne and the No. 9 Budweiser Ford team will start the Shelby American NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway from the 19th position after posting a lap time of 29.033 seconds and speed of 185.995 mph during Friday’s qualifying session.
• Kahne ended Friday’s practice session in the 13th position after the team made adjustments to improve the tight-handling Budweiser Ford.
• Kurt Busch scored the pole position with a lap time of 28.614 seconds and speed of 188.719 mph. Jeff Gordon will start on the outside of the front row.
• There are two practice sessions scheduled for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series teams tomorrow prior to Sunday’s Shelby American. The first practice session is set for 10:40 a.m. PST and the second will start at 11:45 p.m. PST.

Kahne discusses racing at Las Vegas Motor Speedway versus Auto Club Speedway, where the team competed last weekend: “They’re very different tracks. I like both tracks, but I think this one should be pretty good. It’s the third or fourth year with this new pavement, so I think there should be some pretty good racing. It should be pretty nice.”

Kahne discusses making gains in the point standings: “I think we all know that in this sport you can go on rolls and if you can run consistently you can gain points pretty fast, especially early in the season. If you’re 34th in points after 10 races, you’re probably in trouble, but early in the year I think you have plenty of time to make those gains and we need to get started this weekend. We have to run well this weekend if we want to get started on going in the right direction.”

The following is the starting position of the other beverage-sponsored cars participating in Shelby American race weekend:

• Kurt Busch, driver of the No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge, will start first.
• Jeff Gordon and the No. 24 DuPont/Pepsi Max Chevrolet team will start second.
• Dale Earnhardt Jr. and the No. 88 National Guard/AMP Energy Chevrolet team will start fourth.
• Matt Kenseth and the No. 17 Crown Royal Ford team will start 11th.
• Scott Speed, driver of the No. 82 Red Bull Toyota, will start 23rd.
• Brian Vickers, driver of the No. 83 Red Bull Toyota, will start 31st.
• Robby Gordon, driver of the No. 7 Monster Energy Toyota, will start 42nd.

Saturday’s two practice sessions will air live on SPEED Channel starting at 10:30 a.m. PST/1:30 p.m. EST. The Shelby American is scheduled for a 12 p.m. PST/3 p.m. EST start on Sunday. The live race broadcast is provided by FOX. FOX’s coverage begins with its pre-race show at 11 a.m. PST/2 p.m. EST. Live radio coverage will be provided by Performance Racing Network (PRN).