NASCAR at Chicagoland 2017 Qualifying Results: Kyle Busch Takes 7th Pole of Year

Kyle Busch earned the pole position for Sunday's Tales of the Turtles 400 after posting the best time in the final round of Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series qualifying Friday at Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, Illinois.

It's the seventh pole of the 2017 season for Busch. He'll be joined by Denny Hamlin on the front row for the first race of the Cup Championship Playoffs. Current points leader Martin Truex Jr. and Kevin Harvick will start on the second row after finishing third and fourth, respectively.

Here's the look at the top qualifying results via NASCAR.com:

1. Kyle Busch (18)

2. Denny Hamlin (11)

3. Martin Truex Jr. (78)

4. Kevin Harvick (4)

5. Brad Keselowski (2)

6. Kyle Larson (42)

7. Joey Logano (22)

8. Chase Elliott (24)

9. Austin Dillon (3)

10. Matt Kenseth (20)

Busch, who starts the playoffs in third place, has been dominant during the qualifying sessions over the past couple months. Only once, however, did starting on the pole translate into a race victory: the Overton's 400 at Pocono Raceway in July.

In fact, the 2015 Cup Series champion has registered just as many finishes outside the top 15 as top-five results from those poles (two each). So finding a way to better translate that success on race day will be essential to potentially chasing down another championship.

NASCAR on NBC‏ provided Busch's reaction to the qualifying triumph:

Meanwhile, this could be a statement race for Truex. He enters the playoffs as the points leader, and he's the defending champion in this event. Posting a second straight victory at Chicagoland would establish him as the clear title favorite.

The 37-year-old New Jersey native attempted to downplay his status as the driver to beat, though. He said while they've been able to maintain "one of the best cars all year," it's going to take even more to survive the NASCAR playoff journey, per Mike Hembree of USA Today.

"The way the system is set up, I don't know that you can have a favorite," he said. "This has got to be the toughest championship in sports to win, without a question. With the eliminations (after each of the first three rounds), with one race for the championship at the end, especially. You're not out there one-on-one. There's 39 other cars, and you're racing against three of them (in the final race at Homestead-Miami Speedway)."

Looking ahead, the margin for error is thin for all of the drivers who qualified for the Cup Championship Playoffs. Even those closer to the top of the 16-competitor postseason, like Busch and Truex, can't afford a string of bad results.

Keselowski is one other driver to watch Sunday. He's won this event twice in the past five years, including 2012 when he went on to win the Cup Series championship.