In a mini-replay of the Charlotte 600 ending Kurt Busch, driving a Penske Dodge, out-qualified Jamie McMurray’s Earnhardt-Ganassi Chevrolet for the pole.
It came down adjusting for weather, as rain-delayed qualifying favored the earlier NASCAR Sprint Cup draws. "You wanted to really be in the first few cars to go out because the cloud cover was still there. Once I saw McMurray, he was the first car out and he ran in the 37-second bracket, I knew the pace was going to be quick,” said Busch who averaged 189.984 mph around the two-mile superspeedway. “We just made a small adjustment to loosen up our car. I give all the credit to the crew and (crew chief) Steve Addington for making the sharp decision that it takes to set a car on the pole and stay on top of changing track conditions." McMurray commented, on the rivalry, “Well, we joked around a little bit on top of the hauler that Kurt, certainly, if we could get rid of him, I would’ve won Charlotte and would’ve been on the pole here! “They’re just running really well right now, and I think that’s great that we get to have that same competitiveness between the Penske and Ganassi teams that they’ve had in Indy Car racing for years. It’s exciting, I think, for the NASCAR team to able to perform as well as we have, and the same thing for the Penske. “So, that’s great that we’re just not talking about Hendrick and Joe Gibbs Racing and Richard Childress, that our names are included in that, so it’s exciting to get to be part of this team right now." It was Busch’s 12th pole in 343 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races, his second pole and eighth top-10 start in 2010. His first pole this season was at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. It was also his first pole in 19 races at MIS. His previous best start at Michigan was fourth in June of 2003. Jimmie Johnson was third fastest in a Chevrolet followed by the Ford of Kasey Kahne. Travis Kvapil qualified 34th two days after NASCAR docked Kvapil and owner Doug Yates 150 points for using illegal valve stems last week at Pocono. The penalty bumped the No. 38 car out of the top-35 in owner points, meaning Kvapil had to get in the race on his qualifying time. Landon Cassill will make his Cup debut driving a James-Finch owned Chevrolet from the 35th spot. Michael Waltrip, Johnny Sauter and Dave Blaney failed to make it in the 43-car field.
Recent Articles
|
Racing Multimedia
Recommendations |