By Andy Walter

DOVER — Kyle Busch admits it hasn’t been the best month or so for him.

But the veteran NASCAR Cup Series driver is hoping maybe things are starting to turn around after he won the pole for the Wurth 400 this afternoon at Dover Motor Speedway.

Busch clocked a top speed of 162.191 mph to top second-place qualifier Ryan Blaney, who came in at 161.951.

The pole was the first of the season for Busch. It will be the second-straight Dover race he’s started out front, although last year’s qualifying was wiped out by rain.

Busch ended up finishing just 21st in the race.

“It’s pretty funny, we were standing here talking about sitting on the pole here last year, too,” said Busch. “We started first and then my over-excitement at coming down pit road the first time — speeding on pit road — sent us to the back.

“We didn’t quite have the race we wanted. We don’t want to make that same mistake again this year.”

Busch is currently only 17th in the season points standings.

"The last month we've definitely been struggling for speed," he said. "Hopefully this can give us momentum."

After Busch and Blaney, William Byron, Tyler Reddick and and Noah Gragson round out the top five for Sunday’s Wurth 400, which starts at 2 p.m. (FS1).

There were a few mishaps during qualifying, the hardest of which came when Kaz Grala hit the outside wall coming out of Turn 4. He had been on the same set of tires for 27 laps.

Christopher Bell and Zane Smith also spun out their cars.

"It feels like you're going 300 miles per hour through the corners here," said Ryan Blaney, the defending NASCAR Cup Series champion. "We were close. I thought we had enough of a car for the pole and it was hard to tell how much the track was going to slow down the second run.

"I think I could have hit it a little better, but we have a good car and we’ll see what we have [Sunday].”

"This is always one I've had circled," said past Dover champion Alex Bowman, who is making his 300th career Cup Series start this weekend and will start ninth on Sunday. "This is my favorite racetrack that we go to. I'm really excited to get back here."