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

Biffle sets record Darlington Cup pole

Greg Biffle set a new track record at Darlington Raceway during NASCAR Sprint Cup Series qualifying for Saturday's Dodge Challenger 500

As expected based on the speeds set during practice, the pole position lap was well under the existing track record, which stood for more than twelve years before a recent repave increased grip levels on the track surface.

Biffle, a two time winner at Darlington, set a lap time of 27.405 seconds at an average speed of 179.442 mph, becoming the fastest man ever at Darlington. Dale Earnhardt Jr had been on pole before that, but the Roush Fenway driver beat him by just over a hundredth of a second.

"We spent a lot of time in race trim and feel like we have a really, really good car for tomorrow night," said Biffle, stressing the new surface has made the track less forgiving.

"The biggest thing is we're two-and-a-half-seconds faster than we had been and it's just the margin for error. Darlington has always been right on the fence.

"That margin for error hasn't gone anywhere other than we're so much faster that it bites you so much quicker and easier now. It's almost tougher now with the speeds we're running."

Earnhardt Jr will start Saturday's race from the front row of the grid, despite being one of the first drivers to complete his qualifying run. He said his lap was far from perfect as he didn't push enough, expecting to get beaten due to the improving track conditions.

"That was a pretty good lap," Earnhardt said. "The car probably had a good [27.30 second] lap in it. We just got a good, clean lap in and kept it off the fence trying to give us a good shot for tomorrow. We've got a great car. We've had one all weekend. That'll do okay."

Starting third will be reigning champion Jimmie Johnson, who ran his backup car after crashing twice during Friday. He first crashed at turn one driving his primary machine in the third practice, and later spun and caused front-end damage to his back up one in the final session before qualifying.

His team swiftly repaired his backup machine, and Johnson showed his two incidents did not affect his confidence, lapping less than half a tenth off Biffle's benchmark on his first flying lap.

"I'm speechless myself with the equipment these guys give me week in and week out," Johnson said. "Fortunately today we were fast the whole time, but I kept hitting things. I'm just glad I got that out of my way and I got a good clean lap in.

"Track position is going to be very important in the race, plus a good pit stall pick. It's going to be tough to pass with the speed in the track."

Tony Stewart was fourth-fastest and the best among the Joe Gibbs Racing drivers. He praised the work done at the track to make it smoother and faster than ever, and for once he recognized Goodyear's efforts to have the right tyres for the new surface.

"This place is very, very fast. It's very, very smooth. They did an awesome job," Stewart said.

"As much as I'll give Goodyear a hard time when they do things wrong, we've been to Charlotte this week testing and have been here and they've brought two good tyres that we've been on this week. I appreciate the effort that they put forth this week. I'm happy."

Dave Blaney was the fastest of the drivers who needed to make the field on time, placing 13th, one place ahead of veteran Sterling Marlin who had a good qualifying effort replacing Dario Franchitti. Regan Smith was the fastest rookie qualifier taking 16th on the grid.

Kasey Kahne crashed on his first qualifying lap and did not set a time but will start the race from the back of the grid in his backup car, thanks to his owner points status.

Pos  Driver               Make        Speed     Time
 1.  Greg Biffle          Ford        179.442   27.405
 2.  Dale Earnhardt Jr    Chevrolet   179.357   27.418 + 0.013
 3.  Jimmie Johnson       Chevrolet   179.206   27.441 + 0.036
 4.  Tony Stewart         Toyota      179.076   27.461 + 0.056
 5.  Kurt Busch           Dodge       178.965   27.478 + 0.073
 6.  Kyle Busch           Toyota      178.809   27.502 + 0.097
 7.  Elliott Sadler       Dodge       178.129   27.607 + 0.202
 8.  Jeff Gordon          Chevrolet   178.071   27.616 + 0.211
 9.  Scott Riggs          Chevrolet   178.064   27.617 + 0.212
10.  Bobby Labonte        Dodge       177.775   27.662 + 0.257
11.  Kevin Harvick        Chevrolet   177.736   27.668 + 0.263
12.  Jeff Burton          Chevrolet   177.659   27.680 + 0.275
13.  Dave Blaney          Toyota      177.307   27.735 + 0.330
14.  Sterling Marlin      Dodge       177.134   27.762 + 0.357
15.  David Ragan          Ford        177.109   27.766 + 0.361
16.  Regan Smith          Chevrolet   177.109   27.766 + 0.361
17.  Joe Nemechek         Chevrolet   177.077   27.771 + 0.366
18.  Michael McDowell     Toyota      177.070   27.772 + 0.367
19.  Juan Montoya         Dodge       176.822   27.811 + 0.406
20.  Bill Elliott         Ford        176.778   27.818 + 0.413
21.  Denny Hamlin         Toyota      176.638   27.840 + 0.435
22.  Martin Truex Jr      Chevrolet   176.606   27.845 + 0.440
23.  Sam Hornish Jr       Dodge       176.581   27.849 + 0.444
24.  Travis Kvapil        Ford        176.568   27.851 + 0.446
25.  Jamie McMurray       Ford        176.499   27.862 + 0.457
26.  A.J. Allmendinger    Toyota      176.473   27.866 + 0.461
27.  Mark Martin          Chevrolet   176.359   27.884 + 0.479
28.  Brian Vickers        Toyota      176.283   27.896 + 0.491
29.  Casey Mears          Chevrolet   176.170   27.914 + 0.509
30.  David Reutimann      Toyota      176.126   27.921 + 0.516
31.  J.J. Yeley           Toyota      175.848   27.965 + 0.560
32.  Ryan Newman          Dodge       175.666   27.994 + 0.589
33.  David Gilliland      Ford        175.578   28.008 + 0.603
34.  Matt Kenseth         Ford        175.528   28.016 + 0.611
35.  Kyle Petty           Dodge       175.172   28.073 + 0.668
36.  Carl Edwards         Ford        174.494   28.182 + 0.777
37.  Michael Waltrip      Toyota      174.253   28.221 + 0.816
38.  Clint Bowyer         Chevrolet   174.241   28.223 + 0.818
39.  Reed Sorenson        Dodge       173.271   28.381 + 0.976
40.  Robby Gordon         Dodge       172.584   28.494 + 1.089
41.  Paul Menard          Chevrolet   172.572   28.496 + 1.091
42.  Kasey Kahne          Dodge          -        -       -
43.  Patrick Carpentier   Dodge       175.166   28.074 + 0.669

Be part of the Autosport community

Join the conversation
Previous article Speeds soar at Darlington
Next article Stewart wins Darlington Nationwide

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