NASCAR at New Hampshire 2017 Qualifying Results: Kyle Busch Takes Pole

Kyle Busch won the pole for Sunday's NASCAR ISM Connect 300 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway with a qualifying speed of 135.049 mph.

This marks the eighth pole for Busch during the 2017 season. He's driven that success to two race wins and is tied with Brad Keselowski for third in the playoff standings heading into Sunday's race.  

Martin Truex Jr., who ended the regular season as the points leader, got his playoffs off to a strong start with a win at Chicago last time out. He enters the second race of the postseason starting from the fifth position.

Here's the full starting grid for NASCAR's annual event from New Hampshire, via NASCAR.com:

Row 1: Kyle Busch (Pole), Kyle Larson

Row 2: Denny Hamlin, Ryan Blaney

Row 3: Martin Truex Jr., Kevin Harvick

Row 4: Kurt Busch, Erik Jones

Row 5: Kasey Kahne, Matt Kenseth 

Row 6: Jamie McMurray, Jimmie Johnson

Row 7: Brad Keselowski, Chase Elliott

Row 8: Dale Earnhardt Jr., Clint Bowyer

Row 9: Austin Dillon, Ryan Newman

Row 10: Paul Menard, A.J. Allmendinger

Row 11: David Ragan, Chris Buescher

Row 12: Trevor Bayne, Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

Row 13: Daniel Suarez, Matt DiBenedetto

Row 14: Danica Patrick, Landon Cassill 

Row 15: Aric Almirola, Ty Dillon

Row 16: Michael McDowell, Cole Whitt

Row 17: Corey LaJoie, Gray Gaulding

Row 18: Reed Sorensen, Brett Moffitt

Row 19: Jeffrey Earnhardt, Cody Ware

Row 20: Joey Logano

Busch ended the first round of qualifying just ahead of Jimmie Johnson and Jamie McMurray. The No. 18 car had a blazing speed of 134.544 mph around the one-mile track, but he nearly had an accident coming around a turn in the second round, as NASCAR shared via Twitter:

Even though that particular slip dropped Busch into sixth place coming out of the second round, he had no problem bouncing back with an impressive performance in the final round to earn his second consecutive pole.

Busch had nothing but praise for his team after capturing the pole in an interview with NBC Sports Network:

Joining Busch on the front row is Kyle Larson, who has qualified in the top five four times in the past five races. He won at Richmond on Sept. 9 and was terrific at practice earlier on Friday, recording a better top speed (135.714 mph) than what Busch used to win the pole.

Johnson had to pull out his backup car for qualifying after losing control of his original during the second lap in practice that caused him to run into the wall.

"I had a good first lap and entering Turn 3 for my second lap just got in there with a lot of speed anticipated it sticking, didn't quite stick and then once I got out of the PJ1 there was just really no slowing down or directing it off the wall at that point," Johnson said of his accident, per NASCAR.com's Pat DeCola.

The good news for Johnson is his team was able to get the backup car ready for qualifying, and he will start from the 12th position on Sunday. The seven-time NASCAR champion is also looking to make a move up the playoff standings from his seventh-place position.

For the 16 drivers in the playoffs, New Hampshire is a critical race. It's sandwiched between the start of the playoffs and the first set of eliminations for the bottom four in the standings at Dover International Speedway on Oct. 1.

Kevin Harvick, who is starting in the third row next to Truex, is the defending champion in this event. He's only had one win this season but has been as consistent as any driver, with 17 top-10 finishes in 27 starts.