Kurt Busch speaks to the media after winning the pole for Sunday’s FireKeepers Casino 400 at Michigan International Speedway. Eric Young/The SuperSpeedway

BROOKLYN, MICH — Kurt Busch ran a lap of 203.361 miles per hour to win the pole for the 2018 FireKeepers Casino 400 during qualifying Friday.

It was Busch’s 24th career pole position and his second of 2018.

Brad Keselowski qualified second with a speed of 203.166 mph. Kyle Busch barely made it into the second round of qualifying but was good enough for a third-place starting position in the final round with a speed of 203.120 mph. Kevin Harvick qualified fourth and Joey Logano fifth.

“I left a little bit out there,” Keselowski said after his run. “I’m kind of kicking myself in the butt. I don’t know if I could have gotten to Kurt.”

Busch said his run was fun because he knew he needed to go after it hard, but he had confidence in his car.

“Watching all the Forts in practice I knew we had a good shot at it,” Busch said. “The guys tweaked on the tires the right amount. It is a new compound, left and right side, and we didn’t want to get caught up too much in chasing the tires. We went with the status quo. I think it is because of the speed that I like here and Texas and the balance we had in our car in qualifying.”

He said now it is time to put it together for the race.

“Now we need to translate that to race speed,” Busch said. “I enjoy qualifying here. It’s a pleasure to have one of these Fords and have Yates power under the hood. To go 217 miles per hour, to haul the mail going into the corner, I love that feeling.”