Although it’s too early to say that Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s comeback has started, it took an important first step when he won the pole for the Atlanta 500 Sprint Cup Race.
“The car did everything I asked it to do,” Earnhardt Jr. said. “The Chevrolet was pretty good in practice; we just needed to get a little better. And we just need to hit that perfect lap.” On a cold night in Georgia he averaged 192.761mph which is the fastest pole speed set by a Car of Tomorrow, beating the previous record of 192.376mph set last fall in Charlotte. Explaining his run he added "I don't think it was as edgy as some of those runs Mark (Martin) has had. My car has been real comfortable.” His last pole was in April 2008 in Texas. Despite a second-place finish at the Daytona 500 NASCAR’s most popular driver is still looking for consistency he added “It’s good to be on the pole, and I’m real proud of it,” Earnhardt Jr. said. “But we’re hungry … we’re just so hungry to do so much better on Sunday. We’re starving for a good finish, and for something like this to happen Sunday for us. That’s all we can think about.” Another driver looking for better finishes, Kyle Busch qualified second, at 192.280 in a Toyota. He had qualified earlier than Earnhardt and explained: “We got a good lap in. I was real happy with the way it turned out when I was done qualifying and then a couple cars later we get beat but that’s just what happens sometimes.” Juan Pablo Montoya was third fastest and feels there’s a lot of work to do befor Sunday’s race. “We have a very good idea of what we need to do. The whole thing is how much the tires are going to drop off. It can lose a lot of grip. It is going to be very different than before.” Montoya said he has moved on and that his incident with teammate Jamie McMurray is history. “He sent me a text saying la-la-la-la-la and he was sorry and the whole thing and I said don't worry about it. Really, I was really pissed at the time because we had a DNF the week before with an engine problem. And this week being taken out by your teammate is something that you don't really expect but it happens. It's part of racing and move on." Mark Martin was the third Chevrolet driver in the top four. The three drivers who didn’t qualify were Aric Almirola, Casey Mears and Terry Cook.
Recent Articles
|
Racing Multimedia
Recommendations |