Hornish lapped the high-banked half-mile in 15.432 seconds at an average speed of 124.339 mph.

Penske Racing teammate, Brad Keselowski will start the race from the sixth position in the No. 22 Discount Tire/SKF Ford Mustang.

“Not a bad qualifying run for our Alliance Truck Parts Ford Mustang,” said Hornish. “The car was actually a little better than the driver today – I got a little too aggressive going into Turns 3 & 4 on the second lap – had a bit of wiggle and that cost us a tenth of second. On the bright side starting third is a huge improvement over our previous record here so we’ll take it and make the most of it.”