Some might say five-time Sprint Cup Champion, Jimmie Johnson, out-raced the wind to win his first pole since September 2010, and 26th in his career.
“So happy to get the pole,” said Johnson. “ We have been second quite a bit and we have been off quite a bit the past few times over the last year-and-a-half so it’s nice to win the pole and get that great starting spot and pit road pick … so that is fun.”
Qualifying was stopped for almost 20-minutes when gusty winds hit the Kentucky Speedway almost midway through the qualifying line.
Johnson was in his motorhome, watching qualifying, when the wind hit. “thought there for a minute that somebody backed into our motorhome and hit it so I opened the door to look out and when I opened the door, the wind almost took the door off the hinges and I was like, okay, I don’t know what is going on and there was a lot of stuff blowing around at that point.”
Driving a Chevrolet he turned a 29.700 second lap, with an average of 181.818 mph. Johnson edged defending winner Kyle Busch’s Toyota for the pole.
Last year’s winner of the inaugural race, Busch averaged 181.421 and was only 0.065 seconds slower than the pole winner. Busch was disappointed “"Oh, it was alright,” he said. “Certainly hoped for a little bit more there, but unfortunately didn't achieve what we needed to.”
Denny Hamlin, Busch’s JGR teammate was third fastest and Kevin Harvick was fourth quick.
Matt Kenseth, the Sprint Cup points leader who surprised many by his announcement to leave Roush Fenway Racing, was 23rd.
J.J. Yeley and Mike Skinner failed to qualify.
In other news Brad Keselowski had an issue with Juan Pablo Montoya in the first practice which resulted in a wall banging for Keselowski. And it required the young driver to go to a back- up car. In the second practice Keselowski, driving the backup car, intentionally put a bumper on Montoya’s car . Keselowski went to the NASCAR hauler.
“So happy to get the pole,” said Johnson. “ We have been second quite a bit and we have been off quite a bit the past few times over the last year-and-a-half so it’s nice to win the pole and get that great starting spot and pit road pick … so that is fun.”
Qualifying was stopped for almost 20-minutes when gusty winds hit the Kentucky Speedway almost midway through the qualifying line.
Johnson was in his motorhome, watching qualifying, when the wind hit. “thought there for a minute that somebody backed into our motorhome and hit it so I opened the door to look out and when I opened the door, the wind almost took the door off the hinges and I was like, okay, I don’t know what is going on and there was a lot of stuff blowing around at that point.”
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| A tent blown over when the wind hit the Kentucky Speedway. (Photo: NASCAR) |
Driving a Chevrolet he turned a 29.700 second lap, with an average of 181.818 mph. Johnson edged defending winner Kyle Busch’s Toyota for the pole.
Last year’s winner of the inaugural race, Busch averaged 181.421 and was only 0.065 seconds slower than the pole winner. Busch was disappointed “"Oh, it was alright,” he said. “Certainly hoped for a little bit more there, but unfortunately didn't achieve what we needed to.”
Denny Hamlin, Busch’s JGR teammate was third fastest and Kevin Harvick was fourth quick.
Matt Kenseth, the Sprint Cup points leader who surprised many by his announcement to leave Roush Fenway Racing, was 23rd.
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| Photo: NASCAR |
J.J. Yeley and Mike Skinner failed to qualify.
In other news Brad Keselowski had an issue with Juan Pablo Montoya in the first practice which resulted in a wall banging for Keselowski. And it required the young driver to go to a back- up car. In the second practice Keselowski, driving the backup car, intentionally put a bumper on Montoya’s car . Keselowski went to the NASCAR hauler.