The latest auto news, reviews, prices, product and vehicle releases. Jun
29th
Stay connected Subscribe to our RSS feed
A little cloud may have made the difference helping Dale Earnhardt Jr. to take the pole on Friday evening at Kentucky Speedway.
Driving a Chevrolet Earnhardt lapped the 1 ½ mile speedway at 183.636 mph nearly two miles an hour faster than teammate Jimmie Johnson's previous record of 181.818mph set last June.
“I think that the cloud cover at least gave us a bit of speed,” said Earnhardt after winning his 12th career Sprint Cup pole.
“It's hard to say of course the cooler track temps gives the car more grip. I would admit that I think we definitely had the better situation of anyone in practice with that scenario. There were some clouds that came in later in the qualifying session, but not quite the extent of what we had. I did think the lap was really good.”
Carl Edwards, who also benefitted from some cloud cover, was second in a Ford at 183.306 mph.
“We had a good cloud,” said Edwards. “The cloud and the track temperature was a huge part of qualifying today. We were fortunate enough to have cloud cover over about 75-percent of the race track which was nice. I didn't expect, after our mock qualifying runs, that people would be going that fast.
“I knew how fast we had to go to get the pole and just couldn't quite go that fast. That was a good job by Dale Jr. and those guys, they did a great job. They did a good job with their qualifying effort and they did a good job with theirs and they just beat us.”
Johnson, the series points leader aiming for his sixth Sprint Cup title, had held the provisional pole, at 183.144 mph, for a short while, and ended up third.
“Yeah, I was really happy with my lap; (Turns) 1 and 2 went really well for me,” said Johnson. “In (Turns) 3 and 4, I felt like I left a little bit on the table. But still, the gap that we had on people and the fact that we had a track record, I got a little optimistic. And not long after that (Dale Earnhardt) Junior took us down.”
Kyle Busch was fourth fastest at 182.593 mph in a Toyota. Explaining that he had no weather help he said “clouds played a huge role and unfortunately we didn't get one. We still had a solid time there and ended up fourth so at least we are up near the front. It's always better to start here closer to the front.”
All together eight drivers eclipsed the qualifying record set last June.
Driving a Chevrolet Earnhardt lapped the 1 ½ mile speedway at 183.636 mph nearly two miles an hour faster than teammate Jimmie Johnson's previous record of 181.818mph set last June.
“I think that the cloud cover at least gave us a bit of speed,” said Earnhardt after winning his 12th career Sprint Cup pole.
“It's hard to say of course the cooler track temps gives the car more grip. I would admit that I think we definitely had the better situation of anyone in practice with that scenario. There were some clouds that came in later in the qualifying session, but not quite the extent of what we had. I did think the lap was really good.”
Carl Edwards, who also benefitted from some cloud cover, was second in a Ford at 183.306 mph.
“We had a good cloud,” said Edwards. “The cloud and the track temperature was a huge part of qualifying today. We were fortunate enough to have cloud cover over about 75-percent of the race track which was nice. I didn't expect, after our mock qualifying runs, that people would be going that fast.
“I knew how fast we had to go to get the pole and just couldn't quite go that fast. That was a good job by Dale Jr. and those guys, they did a great job. They did a good job with their qualifying effort and they did a good job with theirs and they just beat us.”
Johnson, the series points leader aiming for his sixth Sprint Cup title, had held the provisional pole, at 183.144 mph, for a short while, and ended up third.
“Yeah, I was really happy with my lap; (Turns) 1 and 2 went really well for me,” said Johnson. “In (Turns) 3 and 4, I felt like I left a little bit on the table. But still, the gap that we had on people and the fact that we had a track record, I got a little optimistic. And not long after that (Dale Earnhardt) Junior took us down.”
Kyle Busch was fourth fastest at 182.593 mph in a Toyota. Explaining that he had no weather help he said “clouds played a huge role and unfortunately we didn't get one. We still had a solid time there and ended up fourth so at least we are up near the front. It's always better to start here closer to the front.”
All together eight drivers eclipsed the qualifying record set last June.