Daytona Beach, FL (Sports Network) - Trevor Bayne will start on the pole for the Nationwide Series season-opener at Daytona International Speedway after posting the quickest lap in Friday's qualifying session.
Bayne, who drives the No. 6 Ford for Roush Fenway Racing, turned a lap at 177.162 mph for his sixth career pole in his 86th Nationwide start. It was his first pole in six races at Daytona. Bayne is behind the wheel of the No. 6 car this season after Ricky Stenhouse Jr. drove it to two straight championships in the series. Stenhouse is now a rookie in the Sprint Cup Series.
"It's an honor to be a part of this group of guys (No. 6 team)," Bayne said. "They're the ones who deserve all the credit for this pole, because it's their hard work the whole offseason that put us on the front row. I'm just so thankful that (Roush Fenway Racing) put me in this kind of situation with this kind of team. Now we're going to make a run for the championship, and this is a great way to start it off."
Bayne won the 2011 Daytona 500 in just his second Sprint Cup start. He qualified 33rd for this year's 500-mile race but will have to start from the rear of the field after crashing his primary car during Thursday's twin- qualifiers.
Sam Hornish Jr. qualified second with a lap at 176.869 mph, while Parker Kligerman, who is in his first year as driver of the No. 77 Toyota for Kyle Busch Motorsports, was third quickest at 176.800 mph.
Travis Pastrana, who is Bayne's teammate at Roush Fenway this season, and Austin Dillon rounded out the top-five.
Sixth through 10th were: Elliott Sadler, Kyle Busch, Alex Bowman, Matt Kenseth and Tony Stewart, who has won the 300-mile Nationwide event at Daytona six times, including four out of the last five years.
Danica Patrick will start 12th in Saturday's Nationwide race, which is scheduled to start at 1:15 p.m. ET. Patrick, who is a Sprint Cup rookie this year as well, is driving the No. 34 Chevrolet for Turner Scott Motorsports in this event.
