Somebody forgot to tell Brad Keselowski that there’s 12 NASCAR Sprint Cup drivers racing for a championship, starting at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on Sunday.
Keselowski, ranked a dismal 26th in the Sprint Cup points standings, stunned the 12 contenders in the Chase for the Sprint Cup Friday afternoon, as he claimed the pole for the Sylvania 300 at NHMS.
The Michigan native lapped the 1.058-mile Loudon, N.H., oval at 133.572 miles per hour, good enough to put the No. 12 Penske Racing Dodge on the pole for the opening Chase race. FOXNews
Keselowski edged Chase driver Clint Bowyer (133.464 mph), as both improved on the previous qualifying record of Juan Montoya (133.431 mph on Sept. 20, 2009). Montoya (133.357 mph) qualified fifth Friday, one spot behind Earnhardt Ganassi teammate Jamie McMurray (133.389 mph).
Keselowski thought the appearance of the sun right before he made his two-lap run was more of a coincidence than a contributing factor to the first pole of his Cup career.
“It’s really hard to tell,” said Keselowski, who has had what he termed a “tumultuous” first full season in Cup racing. “The sun was going in and out toward the end [of the session] there quite a bit. The lap-time fluctuation was really hard to predict.
“If the cars that ran after me would have had faster first laps, I would have really said it was a factor, but they did not have faster first laps—because that heat in the track should have given them a faster first and slower second [lap]. Just from that I would tend to think it was not as big a deal as you might think it is.” NASCAR.com
Keselowski became the third driver in the series this year to capture his first pole. Joey Logano’s maiden pole came in March at Bristol, and A.J. Allmendinger’s first one occurred in April at Phoenix.
Allmendinger, David Reutimann and Paul Menard took the sixth through eighth starting spots, respectively.
Chase contenders Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards completed the top-10.
Denny Hamlin, the top-seeded driver in the Chase and last weekend’s winner at Richmond, qualified 22nd.
Other drivers in the Chase and their starting positions include: Kurt Busch (12th), Jeff Burton (13th), Greg Biffle (14th), Jeff Gordon (17th), Jimmie Johnson (25th) and Kevin Harvick (27th). Matt Kenseth qualified the worst among the title contenders with a 33rd starting position. MiamiHerald.com
“We all think that a fast start is needed to win the Chase,” said Johnson, who won here in June. “ In ’06, it wasn’t the case so we all say that but until we get to race six or seven, the race strategy of what it really takes isn’t going to be clear yet. Yes, we are all hopeful to get off to a good start here and for our team and the fact that we’ve been very consistent and running in the top five here the last few times.”
Johnson obviously wants a good finish on Sunday, but he isn’t staking his Chase on it.
“We’re hopeful for that,” said Johnson on a day when he celebrated his 35th birthday. “But if it doesn’t happen then we’ll spin it in a way that says in ’06 you didn’t need to and there’s still hope and there’s still nine races and it probably drives all of you crazy, the positions we take week after week. We’ve got to give ourselves hope somehow.” FOXNews
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NASCAR Sprint Cup Series: Sylvania 300 at New Hampshire - Race Line-Up
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