J.J. Yeley was the first driver on track. Yeley had an incident in practice and he decided to feel out his car during his lap, which caused his lap to be very slow. Early in the session, it was obvious that Kyle Busch was there to grab the pole. He blistered the first three drivers who went out in front of him and took the provisional pole. Drivers like Jimmie Johnson, Clint Bowyer, Kevin Harvick, and Kurt Busch were unable to best Busch's lap. In fact, Busch held the provisional pole until his teammate, Denny Hamlin, took it away seventeen drivers later. Matt Kenseth went out after Hamlin and qualified second, which gave Joe Gibbs Racing the 1-2-3 provisional spots up to that point in qualifying. Jeff Gordon quickly put an end to that with a second place run immediately after Kenseth. Hamlin stayed on the provisional pole until Carl Edwards was able to best his lap. This led to the first and only change in qualifying order in the session with Michael McDowell. McDowell was put on the five minute clock and he was unable to run a lap, but he is still in the race because only 43 drivers attempted to qualify. Edwards lap looked really good and he was able to hold off Juan Pablo Montoya and Martin Truex Jr. easily. It looked like he had the pole, but Ricky Stenhouse Jr. had something to say about that. He went out and ran the bottom of the track just like his owner, Jack Roush, told him to do. Stenhouse's lap looked nearly perfect and he took the top spot. Kasey Kahne and A.J. Allmendinger could not out do him and Stenhouse took his first career NASCAR Sprint Cup Series pole. It was a very historic day for Stenhouse and he will look to take his first pole to his first win.
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. has had a very consistent year for a Sprint Cup Series rookie. Even though he does not have a top 10 finish, he has run solidly up front and has a season high finish of 11th at Daytona and Kansas earlier this year. Even though he has not really been in contention for a win, he has been doing what he should be doing and that is finishing races in the top 20. This qualifying session was a very good set up for the next to last race before the Chase. Jeff Gordon and Martin Truex Jr., who are both looking for Chase spots, qualified in the top 7 while Kurt Busch and Brad Keselowski, who are also looking for Chase spots, qualified outside the top 20. It should be interesting to see who sits in prime position to make it into the Chase before the series heads to the final regular season race of the season at Richmond. I would not recommend missing Sunday's race at Atlanta because it should be a constant battle for position and postseason glory.
(More Stats Down Below!)
Top 5 Qualifiers (With Times):
1st: Ricky Stenhouse Jr. 29.227 (189.688 mph)
2nd: Carl Edwards 29.330 (189.021 mph)
3rd: Juan Pablo Montoya 29.405 (188.539 mph)
4th: Denny Hamlin 29.406 (188.533 mph)
5th: Jeff Gordon 29.481 (188.053 mph)
Notables Not in Top 5 (With Times):
6th: Matt Kenseth 29.492 (187.983 mph)
8th: Dale Earnhardt Jr. 29.565 (187.519 mph)
9th: Kyle Busch 29.570 (187.487 mph)
10th: Jimmie Johnson 29.572 (187.475 mph)
18th: Kasey Kahne 29.719 (186.547 mph)
21st: Danica Patrick 29.789 (186.109 mph)
23rd: Brad Keselowski 29.851 (185.722 mph)
30th: Kevin Harvick 30.011 (184.732 mph)
32nd: Kurt Busch 30.049 (184.499 mph)
DNQs: None
Credits:
-My Own Notes
-Statistics:
http://www.nascar.com/en_us/sprint-cup-series/leaderboard/leaderboard-qualification.html
-Image:
http://espn.go.com/racing/nascar/cup/story/_/id/9617399/ricky-stenhouse-jr-claims-1st-career-sprint-cup-pole-atlanta
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