Reutimann on Texas Cup pole
David Reutimann claimed his second career Sprint Cup series pole in qualifying for the Samsung 500 at Texas Motor Speedway
The Michael Waltrip Racing driver, who currently ranks eleventh in the driver standing, had been second quickest earlier in practice and he backed that up in qualifying by setting a lap of 28.344 seconds, at an average speed of 190.517 miles per hour, knocking Jeff Gordon from the top spot by nearly half a tenth of a second.
"We now have good cars every week and that makes my job a lot easier," said Reutimann after claiming his first pole position since last year's season finale at Homestead.
"We need to make our car pretty versatile to run the top and the bottom. Hopefully we can make some good adjustments for tomorrow's final practice and be ready for Sunday."
Points-leader Jeff Gordon will start from the front row for the second consecutive weekend, having inherited pole position due to rain at Martinsville last weekend. The Hendrick driver is still after his first win of the season, and also his first at Texas Motor Speedway, one of only two tracks were he has yet to win a Cup race.
Roush Fenway's Matt Kenseth will start Sunday's race from third on the grid, which is his best qualifying effort of the season thus far. Also taking his best starting spot of the year will be his team-mate David Ragan, who shares the second row of the grid with this year's Daytona 500 winner.
Paul Menard emerged as a surprise fifth fastest, making it three Ford's in the top five, while Kasey Kahne, a former winner at Texas, was sixth fastest as the best among the Dodge teams in qualifying, actually the only car from the manufacturer in the top-ten of the grid.
Tony Stewart was sixth ahead of former team-mate Kyle Busch, who claimed pole position for Saturday's Nationwide Series event. Reigning champion Jimmie Johnson almost mirrored his time from practice to take ninth place, ahead of rookie Joey Logano who got his best qualifying result of his debut campaign thus far.
Mark Martin, who had been fastest in practice, could only manage a twenty-third place in qualifying, while Carl Edwards, winner at the mile-and-a-half track twice last year, was thirteenth fastest.
"We were a little slower than what we thought we'd be in qualifying," Edwards said. "It was just not quite as fast as we thought it was going to be. But, that's all right. It's a 500-mile race, we run really well here, and in race trim we were real fast, so it should be real good."
Scott Speed failed to make the field for the first time this year, as his car remains outside the top-35 in the car owner standings and his fastest lap in qualifying only ranked forty-fourth fastest among 48 drivers. Joe Nemechek also failed to make the field, as well as Jeremy Mayfield, Todd Bodine and Scott Riggs.
Pos Driver Make Speed Time 1. David Reutimann Toyota 190.516 28.344 2. Jeff Gordon Chevrolet 190.194 28.392 + 0.048 3. Matt Kenseth Ford 189.954 28.428 + 0.084 4. David Ragan Ford 189.934 28.431 + 0.087 5. Paul Menard Ford 189.907 28.435 + 0.091 6. Kasey Kahne Dodge 189.900 28.436 + 0.092 7. Tony Stewart Chevrolet 189.807 28.450 + 0.106 8. Kyle Busch Toyota 189.427 28.507 + 0.163 9. Jimmie Johnson Chevrolet 189.421 28.508 + 0.164 10. Joey Logano Toyota 189.268 28.531 + 0.187 11. Marcos Ambrose Toyota 189.221 28.538 + 0.194 12. Sam Hornish Jr Dodge 189.215 28.539 + 0.195 13. Carl Edwards Ford 189.175 28.545 + 0.201 14. Greg Biffle Ford 189.155 28.548 + 0.204 15. Jeff Burton Chevrolet 189.122 28.553 + 0.209 16. Juan Montoya Chevrolet 188.857 28.593 + 0.249 17. Kevin Harvick Chevrolet 188.831 28.597 + 0.253 18. Brian Vickers Toyota 188.778 28.605 + 0.261 19. Clint Bowyer Chevrolet 188.772 28.606 + 0.262 20. Dale Earnhardt Jr Chevrolet 188.745 28.610 + 0.266 21. Ryan Newman Chevrolet 188.626 28.628 + 0.284 22. Denny Hamlin Toyota 188.541 28.641 + 0.297 23. Mark Martin Chevrolet 188.515 28.645 + 0.301 24. Bobby Labonte Ford 188.469 28.652 + 0.308 25. AJ Allmendinger Dodge 188.298 28.678 + 0.334 26. John Andretti Chevrolet 188.291 28.679 + 0.335 27. Mike Bliss Dodge 188.009 28.722 + 0.378 28. Kurt Busch Dodge 187.950 28.731 + 0.387 29. Robby Gordon Toyota 187.898 28.739 + 0.395 30. David Gilliland Chevrolet 187.833 28.749 + 0.405 31. Martin Truex Jr Chevrolet 187.682 28.772 + 0.428 32. David Stremme Dodge 187.493 28.801 + 0.457 33. Regan Smith Chevrolet 187.487 28.802 + 0.458 34. Michael Waltrip Toyota 187.305 28.830 + 0.486 35. Casey Mears Chevrolet 187.279 28.834 + 0.490 36. Jamie McMurray Ford 187.240 28.840 + 0.496 37. Bill Elliott Ford 187.039 28.871 + 0.527 38. Reed Sorenson Dodge 186.948 28.885 + 0.541 39. Max Papis Toyota 186.496 28.955 + 0.611 40. Brad Keselowski Chevrolet 186.355 28.977 + 0.633 41. Aric Almirola Chevrolet 186.156 29.008 + 0.664 42. Elliott Sadler Dodge 182.395 29.606 + 1.262 43. Dave Blaney Toyota 186.111 29.015 + 0.671
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