Tony Stewart claimed the pole for the Bank of America 500 after edging Matt Kenseth in Thursday night’s qualifying at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
Stewart, who is one the 12 drivers in this year’s Chase for the Sprint Cup championship, turned a lap at 191.959 mph around the 1.5 mile track for his 13th career pole but his first since August 2010 at Pocono. His lap time was only 0.006 seconds faster than title contender Kenseth and just 0.013 seconds ahead of third-place qualifier and current points leader Carl Edwards.
It’s the first pole for Stewart in 26 attempts at Charlotte. He won the first fall nighttime race here in 2003.
“That was a [Ryan] Newman lap there,” Stewart said. “We’ve been pretty solid since we unloaded, so it’s a perfect way to start the weekend so far.” MiamiHerald.com
Stewart’s pole was unexpected in part because during night qualifying sessions at Charlotte, cars later in the order generally get faster.
Thursday night, there were still 10 cars left after Stewart posted his speed, but he watched each try unsuccessfully to knock him from the top spot.
“When you are on top of the board you start to pay more attention. I don’t know why other guys didn’t pick up (speed). I was watching guys’ lap times and it just wasn’t picking up as much as what we’ve seen in the past,” he said.
“I don’t think the track got as hot as you typically see. It makes our lap that much better knowing we were able to gain as much as we did.” Charlotte Observer
A.J. Allmendinger and Greg Biffle—both non-Chase drivers—rounded out the top-five.
Newman, who is Stewart’s teammate and a Chase driver, qualified sixth, followed by Paul Menard and Kasey Kahne, who was quickest in practice earlier in the day with a lap at 191.455 mph.
Jimmie Johnson, the five-time defending Sprint Cup Series champion, took the ninth spot. Johnson picked up his second win of the season last Sunday at Kansas. He is a six-time race winner at this track.
Trevor Bayne took the tenth spot. FOX News
Because practice speeds had been high in the afternoon, there were expectations that Elliott Sadler’s track record of 193.216 mph might fall. Edwards had the best chance; he was on pace to break 28 seconds but his car tightened up in Turns 3 and 4 and cost him the speed necessary to win the pole.
“I came to the green [to start the run] and I had a ton of grip in [Turns} 3 and 4, so I was real excited to get back to 3 and 4 to do that again,” Edwards said. “And on the qualifying lap, I just got tight down there. I was just too aggressive, I think.
“But if I had it to do over again ... I thought that the pole was going to be so fast that I don’t know if I could make myself slow down. If I could do it again, I think I could definitely run a little faster than we ran, but I’m sure everybody could say the same thing—so that was the best I could do.” NASCAR.com
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NASCAR Sprint Cup Series: Bank of America 500 at Charlotte - Race Line-Up
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