Jeff Gordon takes third NASCAR Sprint Cup pole position of 2015
Jeff Gordon stormed to the third pole position of his NASCAR Sprint Cup farewell season as the revised superspeedway qualifying format made its debut at Talladega
Jeff Gordon stormed to the third pole position of his NASCAR Sprint Cup farewell season as the revised superspeedway qualifying format made its debut at Talladega.
The destructive session at Daytona - where Gordon had also been on pole - led to NASCAR dropping its group knockout qualifying system on superspeedways and returning to single-car qualifying.
But unlike the pre-2014 version of that system, cars now took to the track as the previous driver was finishing his flying lap, and a knockout element was retained, with the fastest 12 in round one going into a pole shootout.
Round two was being decided by thousandths of a second until last man to run Gordon put in a 49.160s, 194.793mph lap to depose Hendrick team-mate Kasey Kahne by a relatively huge 0.281s margin.
Qualifying had looked like being a Hendrick Chevrolet rout for a while, but Wood Brothers newcomer Ryan Blaney disrupted that formation by putting his Ford third on the grid.
Hendrick pair Dale Earnhardt Jr and Jimmie Johnson took fourth and fifth ahead of Hendrick customer Tony Stewart's Stewart-Haas Chevy.
Stewart was the only one of the SHR drivers to show strongly, with last week's Richmond winner Kurt Busch down in 19th, and champion Kevin Harvick only 24th, one place ahead of team-mate Danica Patrick.
Neither Penske driver made the pole shootout, with Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano back in 15th and 21st, while after its drivers led both Friday practice sessions, the best Roush Fenway could achieve was 20th for Greg Biffle.
STARTING GRID:
Pos | Driver | Team | Car | Time | Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Jeff Gordon | Hendrick Motorsports | Chevrolet | 49.160s | - |
2 | Kasey Kahne | Hendrick Motorsports | Chevrolet | 49.441s | 0.281s |
3 | Ryan Blaney | Wood Brothers Racing | Ford | 49.460s | 0.300s |
4 | Dale Earnhardt Jr. | Hendrick Motorsports | Chevrolet | 49.463s | 0.303s |
5 | Jimmie Johnson | Hendrick Motorsports | Chevrolet | 49.507s | 0.347s |
6 | Tony Stewart | Stewart-Haas Racing | Chevrolet | 49.509s | 0.349s |
7 | Paul Menard | Richard Childress Racing | Chevrolet | 49.511s | 0.351s |
8 | Matt Kenseth | Joe Gibbs Racing | Toyota | 49.525s | 0.365s |
9 | David Ragan | Joe Gibbs Racing | Toyota | 49.615s | 0.455s |
10 | Clint Bowyer | Michael Waltrip Racing | Toyota | 49.666s | 0.506s |
11 | Casey Mears | Germain Racing | Chevrolet | 49.693s | 0.533s |
12 | Sam Hornish Jr. | Richard Petty Motorsports | Ford | 49.786s | 0.626s |
13 | Kyle Larson | Chip Ganassi Racing | Chevrolet | 49.670s | - |
14 | Austin Dillon | Richard Childress Racing | Chevrolet | 49.671s | - |
15 | Brad Keselowski | Team Penske | Ford | 49.674s | - |
16 | Brian Scott | Richard Childress Racing | Chevrolet | 49.677s | - |
17 | Denny Hamlin | Joe Gibbs Racing | Toyota | 49.684s | - |
18 | Ryan Newman | Richard Childress Racing | Chevrolet | 49.690s | - |
19 | Kurt Busch | Stewart-Haas Racing | Chevrolet | 49.699s | - |
20 | Greg Biffle | Roush Fenway Racing | Ford | 49.701s | - |
21 | Joey Logano | Team Penske | Ford | 49.714s | - |
22 | Carl Edwards | Joe Gibbs Racing | Toyota | 49.723s | - |
23 | Michael Waltrip | Michael Waltrip Racing | Toyota | 49.828s | - |
24 | Kevin Harvick | Stewart-Haas Racing | Chevrolet | 49.862s | - |
25 | Danica Patrick | Stewart-Haas Racing | Chevrolet | 49.918s | - |
26 | Trevor Bayne | Roush Fenway Racing | Ford | 49.946s | - |
27 | Jamie McMurray | Chip Ganassi Racing | Chevrolet | 49.972s | - |
28 | Aric Almirola | Richard Petty Motorsports | Ford | 49.975s | - |
29 | Ricky Stenhouse Jr. | Roush Fenway Racing | Ford | 49.984s | - |
30 | Landon Cassill | Hillman Smith Motorsports | Chevrolet | 50.006s | - |
31 | A.J. Allmendinger | JTG Daugherty Racing | Chevrolet | 50.070s | - |
32 | Bobby Labonte | Go FAS Racing | Ford | 50.090s | - |
33 | Brendan Gaughan | Premium Motorsports | Chevrolet | 50.132s | - |
34 | Josh Wise | Phil Parsons Racing | Ford | 50.200s | - |
35 | Justin Allgaier | HScott Motorsports | Chevrolet | 50.205s | - |
36 | Martin Truex Jr. | Furniture Row Racing | Chevrolet | 50.211s | - |
37 | Alex Bowman | Tommy Baldwin Racing | Chevrolet | 50.235s | - |
38 | Chris Buescher | Front Row Motorsports | Ford | 50.292s | - |
39 | David Gilliland | Front Row Motorsports | Ford | 50.327s | - |
40 | Michael Annett | HScott Motorsports | Chevrolet | 50.361s | - |
41 | Cole Whitt | Front Row Motorsports | Ford | 50.466s | - |
42 | J.J. Yeley | BK Racing | Toyota | 50.602s | - |
43 | Matt DiBenedetto | BK Racing | Toyota | 50.707s | - |
44 | Michael McDowell | Leavine Family Racing | Ford | 50.548s | - |
45 | Jeb Burton | BK Racing | Toyota | 50.672s | - |
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