Aug 14, 2015 3 min read

Matt Kenseth has won the pole for the NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Michigan International Speedway, and Joe Gibbs Racing swept the top three spots in qualifying Friday.

Kenseth won with a lap of 197.488 mph in his No. 20 Toyota, with teammates Denny Hamlin and Carl Edwards finishing second and third. Kyle Busch, another JGR driver, was sixth.

It’s the 16th career Sprint Cup pole for Kenseth and third in 2015. He’d never won the pole at MIS.

The last time one team swept the top three spots in qualifying was when Hendrick Motorsports pulled it off at this year’s Daytona 500. It’s the first time Joe Gibbs Racing has accomplished the feat.

NASCAR to use original rules for Chase: NASCAR will stick with its original 2015 rules package throughout the Chase for the Sprint Cup after switching to track-specific packages for a handful of races recently.

A high-drag aerodynamic package was used at Indianapolis Motor Speedway last month and will be in place again this weekend at Michigan, and it received some criticism from drivers. But a low-downforce package put in place at Kentucky was more popular, and it will be used again at Darlington next month.

But when the 10-race Chase begins Sept. 20 at Chicagoland, the original rules will be used.

Steve O’Donnell, NASCAR’s executive vice president and chief racing development officer, announced the decision Friday after a meeting with drivers at Michigan.

Fontana off IndyCar schedule: IndyCar won’t return to Auto Club Speedway in California next season in a move that weakens the series’ dwindling presence on oval tracks.

The series confirmed Friday that discussions with track officials couldn’t identify a suitable date to return to Fontana.

Although the June race this year was one of the most spectacular IndyCar events in the last several seasons in terms of on-track action, the race was held in front of a crowd of less than 10,000.

Track officials made it clear the June date was not workable, and that IndyCar could only return to the oval as the season finale. Fontana hosted the IndyCar finale from 2012-14, but the races were held in September the first year, October in 2013 and Aug. 30 last year.

IndyCar said it wanted to comply with Fontana’s request to be the season finale, but “the two sides were unable to identify a start time and broadcast window that would not adversely impact television viewership on the East Coast.”

“There was a tremendous amount of effort put forth to keep Auto Club Speedway on the calendar,” said Mark Miles, CEO of Hulman & Co., the parent company of IndyCar. “We mutually agreed that our inability to identify a date for next year doesn’t preclude us revisiting these conversations in the future.”

IndyCar, which was created as a series that would race on ovals in America, has just six on this year’s 16-race schedule. Two of the ovals, Milwaukee and Pocono, could also vanish from the schedule next season because the facilities have struggled to make IndyCar a commercial success.

Pocono, which hosted a July race the last two years, will gauge how next week’s race date works out for the track in terms of attendance before deciding on 2016.

Meanwhile, Phoenix International Raceway officials confirmed Friday they are in serious discussions to bring IndyCar back to its oval.