Earnhardt Jr claims Atlanta Cup pole
Dale Earnhardt Jr claimed his first pole position in nearly two years in qualifying for Sunday's Sprint Cup Series race at Atlanta
The Hendrick Motorsports driver laid down a lap of 28.761 seconds at an average speed of 192.761 mph, knocking Kyle Busch off pole by less than a tenth of a second. Despite some top players running later into the session, Earnhardt's time stood unbeaten.
NASCAR's most popular driver had last been on pole 68 races ago when he started up front at Texas in April of 2008.
"The car was pretty good in practice, but we just needed to get a little bit better," said Earnhardt. "And we just need to hit that perfect lap. There are a lot of cars out there that are fast and able to run good. You've just got to hit the marks and everything and the car was there."
Busch will start on Sunday from the front row for the first time this year in his #18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, while Earnhardt Ganassi's Juan Pablo Montoya qualified third, which will give him his second top-three start of the year after running his trademark high line through the Atlanta banking.
"Today is the first time in a long time we came in from practice and say 'Oh, this doesn't drive that good.' So we had to work on it a lot today," said Montoya. "It seems like the track slowed down a little so to run that fast is pretty good."
Mark Martin, one of four drivers who tested at the track for Goodyear in January, had dominated practice earlier in the day but couldn't quite translate all his pace into qualifying, ending up fourth-fastest ahead of his Hendrick Motorsports team-mate Jeff Gordon, who recovered from having poor balance in his car during practice.
Reigning champion Jimmie Johnson didn't have a good lap as his car seemed to unsettle through turn two, and he ended up only 16th fastest, while points leader Kevin Harvick qualified poorly down in 35th, slowest of the Richard Childress Racing Chevys.
Bobby Labonte was the quickest of the non-guaranteed drivers, while Casey Mears failed to make the field again after suffering an engine failure in practice. Aric Almirola and Terry Cook also failed to qualify.
Pos Driver Make Time 1. Dale Earnhardt Jr Chevrolet 28.761 2. Kyle Busch Toyota 28.833 + 0.072 3. Juan Montoya Chevrolet 28.859 + 0.098 4. Mark Martin Chevrolet 28.903 + 0.142 5. Jeff Gordon Chevrolet 28.909 + 0.148 6. Kasey Kahne Ford 28.922 + 0.161 7. Ryan Newman Chevrolet 28.943 + 0.182 8. Elliott Sadler Ford 28.960 + 0.199 9. David Reutimann Toyota 28.998 + 0.237 10. Carl Edwards Ford 29.013 + 0.252 11. Kurt Busch Dodge 29.018 + 0.257 12. Marcos Ambrose Toyota 29.036 + 0.275 13. Greg Biffle Ford 29.049 + 0.288 14. Matt Kenseth Ford 29.058 + 0.297 15. Tony Stewart Chevrolet 29.073 + 0.312 16. Jimmie Johnson Chevrolet 29.081 + 0.320 17. David Ragan Ford 29.091 + 0.330 18. Clint Bowyer Chevrolet 29.093 + 0.332 19. Martin Truex Jr Toyota 29.095 + 0.334 20. Denny Hamlin Toyota 29.114 + 0.353 21. Bobby Labonte Chevrolet 29.138 + 0.377 22. Jeff Burton Chevrolet 29.145 + 0.384 23. Paul Menard Ford 29.181 + 0.420 24. Jamie McMurray Chevrolet 29.192 + 0.431 25. A.J. Allmendinger Ford 29.201 + 0.440 26. Brian Vickers Toyota 29.210 + 0.449 27. Dave Blaney Toyota 29.242 + 0.481 28. Brad Keselowski Dodge 29.245 + 0.484 29. Joey Logano Toyota 29.304 + 0.543 30. Mike Bliss Chevrolet 29.311 + 0.550 31. Max Papis Toyota 29.316 + 0.555 32. Scott Speed Toyota 29.321 + 0.560 33. Joe Nemechek Toyota 29.324 + 0.563 34. Bill Elliott Ford 29.330 + 0.569 35. Kevin Harvick Chevrolet 29.331 + 0.570 36. Sam Hornish Jr Dodge 29.338 + 0.577 37. David Gilliland Ford 29.436 + 0.675 38. Regan Smith Chevrolet 29.496 + 0.735 39. Robby Gordon Toyota 29.742 + 0.981 40. Travis Kvapil Ford 29.898 + 1.137 41. Kevin Conway Ford 29.998 + 1.237 42. Boris Said Ford 30.309 + 1.548 43. Michael McDowell Toyota 29.371 + 0.610
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