Subscribe

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Autosport Plus

Discover premium content
Subscribe

Sadler claims surprise Texas pole

Elliott Sadler claimed a surprise pole position for Sunday's Chase race, as Ford drivers dominated NASCAR Sprint Cup Series qualifying at Texas Motor Speedway

The Richard Petty Motorsports racer, who is set to leave the outfit at the end of the season after announcing earlier today plans to run full-time in Nationwide with Kevin Harvick's team next year, set his first pole position since 2006 and a new qualifying record for the new generation of Sprint Cup car at an average speed of 195.397 mph.

Sadler beat the previous benchmark set by Penske's Kurt Busch by nearly three tenths, with a lap of 27.636 seconds that allowed his name to remain at the top of the board throughout the session despite running relatively early in the order after being the 13th car out on the track.

"I'm feeling Superman today!" said a buoyant Sadler. "I could sit here and say it is me, or this or that, but [crew chief] Todd Parrott is the man. He can do so much as a crew chief. He is good for me from the mental side and we have been qualifying so much better here the last six weeks or so... that is a really fast lap for me. I got all I can get out of it."

In a front-row sweep for Ford drivers, Roush Fenway's Greg Biffle was second ahead of team-mate Carl Edwards, who had been fastest in the first practice session, which also saw Ford domination with four among the five fastest.

Earnhardt Ganassi's Juan Pablo Montoya was the best Chevrolet driver of the day, splitting the Fords in practice and running fastest among the bowtie-brand racers in qualifying, taking fourth on the grid for Sunday's 500-miler.

A third Roush Fenway Ford rounded out the top five with David Ragan at the wheel, while the elder of the Busch brothers was sixth-fastest and best of the Dodges.

Among the title contenders Jimmie Johnson was best but only 17th, right ahead of the fastest Toyota of David Reutimann. Richard Childress Racing's Kevin Harvick was 26th, clearly focusing on race trim during practice, while Denny Hamlin will see the green flag wave from 30th on the grid.

Nationwide series regular Trevor Bayne will make his Sprint Cup series debut from 28th on the grid driving a Ford for Wood Brothers, after being fastest of those having to make the the field on time. Meanwhile JJ Yeley, Scott Riggs, Michael McDowell, Jeff Green, Josh Wise and Brian Keselowski failed to make the field.

Pos  Driver                Car        Speed    Time     Gap
 1.  Elliott Sadler        Ford       195.397  27.636s
 2.  Greg Biffle           Ford       193.652  27.885s  + 0.249s
 3.  Carl Edwards          Ford       193.646  27.886s  + 0.250s
 4.  Juan Pablo Montoya    Chevrolet  193.479  27.910s  + 0.274s
 5.  David Ragan           Ford       193.424  27.918s  + 0.282s
 6.  Kurt Busch            Dodge      193.375  27.925s  + 0.289s
 7.  Clint Bowyer          Chevrolet  193.320  27.933s  + 0.297s
 8.  Regan Smith           Chevrolet  193.216  27.948s  + 0.312s
 9.  Mark Martin           Chevrolet  193.174  27.954s  + 0.318s
10.  AJ Allmendinger       Ford       193.092  27.966s  + 0.330s
11.  Tony Stewart          Chevrolet  193.078  27.968s  + 0.332s
12.  Paul Menard           Ford       192.775  28.012s  + 0.376s
13.  Aric Almirola         Ford       192.603  28.037s  + 0.401s
14.  Ryan Newman           Chevrolet  192.369  28.071s  + 0.435s
15.  Jeff Gordon           Chevrolet  191.993  28.126s  + 0.490s
16.  Jeff Burton           Chevrolet  191.986  28.127s  + 0.491s
17.  Jimmie Johnson        Chevrolet  191.939  28.134s  + 0.498s
18.  David Reutimann       Toyota     191.891  28.141s  + 0.505s
19.  Matt Kenseth          Ford       191.884  28.142s  + 0.506s
20.  Joey Logano           Toyota     191.768  28.159s  + 0.523s
21.  Martin Truex Jr       Toyota     191.748  28.162s  + 0.526s
22.  Dale Earnhardt Jr     Chevrolet  191.741  28.163s  + 0.527s
23.  Scott Speed           Toyota     191.673  28.173s  + 0.537s
24.  Kasey Kahne           Toyota     191.598  28.184s  + 0.548s
25.  Jamie McMurray        Chevrolet  191.564  28.189s  + 0.553s
26.  Kevin Harvick         Chevrolet  191.557  28.190s  + 0.554s
27.  Sam Hornish Jr        Dodge      191.530  28.194s  + 0.558s
28.  Trevor Bayne          Ford       191.090  28.259s  + 0.623s
29.  Kyle Busch            Toyota     191.056  28.264s  + 0.628s
30.  Denny Hamlin          Toyota     190.968  28.277s  + 0.641s
31.  Bobby Labonte         Chevrolet  190.846  28.295s  + 0.659s
32.  Marcos Ambrose        Toyota     190.833  28.297s  + 0.661s
33.  David Gilliland       Ford       190.201  28.391s  + 0.755s
34.  Joe Nemechek          Toyota     190.121  28.403s  + 0.767s
35.  Casey Mears           Toyota     189.720  28.463s  + 0.827s
36.  Brad Keselowski       Dodge      189.633  28.476s  + 0.840s
37.  Patrick Carpentier    Ford       189.255  28.533s  + 0.897s
38.  Mike Bliss            Toyota     189.202  28.541s  + 0.905s
39.  Robby Gordon          Toyota     188.851  28.594s  + 0.958s
40.  Andy Lally            Chevrolet  188.626  28.628s  + 0.992s
41.  Travis Kvapil         Ford       187.337  28.825s  + 1.189s
42.  Dave Blaney           Ford       185.663  29.085s  + 1.449s
43.  Landon Cassill        Chevrolet  188.996  28.572s  + 0.936s

Be part of the Autosport community

Join the conversation
Previous article Johnson plans aggressive approach
Next article Hamlin: Pressure is on Johnson

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Autosport Plus

Discover premium content
Subscribe