Auto notes: Kurt Busch wins pole position at Pocono

Kurt Busch turned a lap at 177.599 mph Friday and won the pole at Pocono Raceway in Long Pond, Pennsylvania, in a bizarre qualifying session that saw five cars fail to complete a lap in the final round.

Denny Hamlin bobbled and lost control of the No. 11 as the qualifying clock ticked down to bring out the red flag. NASCAR scrubbed the rest of qualifying. Hamlin, Jimmie Johnson, Kyle Busch, Joey Logano and Kasey Kahne all failed to record a lap time in the final round.

Kurt Busch won his third pole of the season in the No. 41 Chevrolet and 19th of his career.

Carl Edwards joins Kurt Busch on the front row. Martin Truex Jr., Jeff Gordon and Kevin Harvick complete the top five.

Kurt Busch has one win this season with five top 10s, a nice rebound from a three-race suspension that opened the season because of his offseason legal woes.

IndyCar

Will Power is starting on the pole at Texas Speedway in Fort Worth for the third year in a row, and three of his fellow Team Penske drivers are close to him.

Defending IndyCar Series champion Power had a two-lap average of 218.519 mph, just ahead of Team Penske teammate Simon Pagenaud at 218.441 mph.

Helio Castroneves starts third, right behind Power’s Chevrolet and ahead of season points leader Juan Pablo Montoya, who qualified fifth.

Andretti Autosport driver Carlos Munoz qualified third in his Honda.

Ryan Hunter-Reay crashed in the first IndyCar Series practice at Texas since changes were made to keep the cars from going airborne. Hunter-Reay was OK and his car stayed on the ground.

Formula One

Formula One points leader Lewis Hamilton slowly skidded into a barrier early in the second practice session for the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal as torrential rain brought test runs to a halt.

Hamilton walked away and didn’t appear to be hurt after failing to make a hairpin turn. His Mercedes Silver Arrow went straight before becoming wedged in the safety barrier.

Truck Series

Matt Crafton held off a hard-charging Daniel Saurez on two late restarts to win the NASCAR Truck Series race in Texas.

The final restart came with two laps left in the scheduled 167-lap race. Crafton and Saurez were pretty much side-by-side until Crafton was able to get clear out of the fourth turn and stay in front.