Shell-Pennzoil Dodge driver Kurt Busch claimed his third consecutive Coors Light Pole Award last Saturday at Michigan International Speedway. Busch heads into Infineon Raceway for this weekend’s Toyota/Save Mart 350 hoping to make it four-in-a-row. “We seem to have the qualifying end of the equation figured out pretty good,” said Busch. “We just have to start turning those great performances on pole day into success on race day. It’d be really cool and would be a feather in our cap if we could keep that pole streak going out on the road course this weekend.”

If Busch does make it four consecutive poles, it should not come as a great surprise. He won the pole there for the 2006 race and has started in the top-six in seven of the 10 Cup races he has started there. Busch started third in last year’s Toyota/Save Mart 350.

The top-three qualifiers for the 2010 Toyota/Save Mart 350: 1st-Kasey Kahne (76.300 seconds/93.893 mph); 2nd-Jimmie Johnson (76.368 seconds/93.809 mph); 3rd-Kurt Busch (76.556 seconds/93.579 mph)

Before Shell-Pennzoil Dodge driver Kurt Busch claimed his third consecutive Coors Light Pole at Michigan, the last driver to win three consecutive poles was former Penske Racing teammate Ryan Newman, who recorded the streak in 2007. Newman drove a Penske Racing No. 12 Dodge to consecutive poles at Charlotte, Dover and Pocono.

So when was the last time a driver won four consecutive pole positions? Stats “guru” Mike Forde (NASCAR PR) says it was back in 2004, when Newman won consecutive front-row starts from Charlotte, to Martinsville, to Atlanta & Phoenix…those poles also coming in a No. 12 Penske Racing Dodge.