Carl Edwards won his third Coors Light Pole Award of the season Friday at Phoenix International Raceway, and A.J. Allmendinger put his car on the front row despite the adversity facing Richard Petty Motorsports.
In contrast, the only three drivers with realistic chances to win the Chase—Denny Hamlin, Jimmie Johnson and Kevin Harvick—all had lackluster qualifying efforts in time trials for Sunday’s Kobalt Tools 500 and must come through the field to stake their claims to the series championship.
Edwards covered the one-mile distance in 26.395 seconds (136.389 mph), as he, Allmendinger (136.250 mph) and Kurt Busch (136.240 mph) all eclipsed Ryan Newman’s track qualifying record of 135.854 mph (26.499 seconds), set on Nov. 5, 2004.
Hamlin, who leads second-place Johnson by 33 points with two races left in the Chase, will start 17th, with Johnson taking the green flag from the 21st position and Harvick from 29th. Harvick trails Hamlin by 59 points. NASCAR.com
“It’s very important to start up front, and it’s one of the things we’ve been focusing on, qualifying,” Edwards said. “It’s really important here. This track, like almost all tracks we race on, track position is so important.”
AJ Allmendinger qualified second for beleaguered Richard Petty Motorsports with a lap of 136.250, and Kurt Busch was third for Penske Racing with a 136.240. The top three drivers all broke the track record.
“There’s no secret right now of what our race team is going through right now,” Allmendinger said. “I think there are two scenarios that can happen in a situation like this, you can try to band together and be stronger and come to the race track more focused, or you can let things start tearing you apart.
“It’s wearing on everybody. It wears on me. But with that said, everybody on the race team is not letting that effect them.” The Associated Press
Qualifying third was Kurt Busch, who ran 136.240 mph, followed by Greg Biffle, the third Ford driver in the top four. Biffle’s No. 16 Roush Fenway Ford had a fast lap of 135.741 mph.
Row 3 was Jamie McMurray’s No. 1 Earnhardt Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates Chevy, 135.665 mph, and David Reutimann, who went 135.547 mph in his Michael Waltrip Racing Toyota.
Completing the top 10 were Kyle Busch, Regan Smith, Aric Almirola and Joey Logano.
“I felt like they were my shoes to wear and representing the Miller Lite brand and the fun that we had off the track and the fun we had on the track, it’s tough to see it go,” said Kurt Busch. “We’ve got two more weeks. It would mean the world to me to go and win one of these final two weeks and spray beer all over each other, because if you get gasoline in your eyes in victory lane, it’s going to sting a little bit. Beer isn’t so bad.” FOX News
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NASCAR Sprint Cup Series: Kobalt Tools 500 at Phoenix - Race Line-Up
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