Photo Credit: Noel Lanier/OnPitRoad.com
At the end of qualifying for the Ford EcoBoost 400, it’d be Jeff Gordon scoring his 77th career pole award with a lap of 29.876 seconds.
For Gordon, it marks his third pole of the season as he is looking to end his season on a high note after just barely missing the cut to be one of the drivers contending for the championship this weekend. Gordon’s pole award also marks the 200th career pole award for Hendrick Motorsports
“I’m really excited about that pole,” he commented. “I don’t think I’ve ever been on the pole here, and to get the 200th for Hendrick is really cool. We want to finish this season off the best way that we can. It’s been a tremendous season for us. I’m proud of these guys.”
Kurt Busch qualified second, followed by Matt Kenseth and Brad Keselowski. Keselowski set a new track qualifying record in the first round with a speed of 181.238 mph.
Kevin Harvick would round out the top-five, becoming the highest qualifier of the four drivers that has a shot at the Sprint Cup Series Championship. Harvick commented after qualifying that he thinks they have a good car for Sunday based on their qualifying effort, and how he was in practice.
“This will be a race that you will go through changing driving conditions, and our focus today was getting the best start that we could. I’m just proud of these guys,” he added.
Clint Bowyer qualified sixth, followed by Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin, Joey Logano and Martin Truex Jr. Hamlin and Logano also have a shot at the championship this weekend.
“I think one of the benefits of having a good car on the long run, is when you have to make another run like we had. It’s been a good day so far,” Hamlin commented. “We’re encouraged by what we’ve seen so far – we’ll just have to see what we got.”
“The guys did a good job recovering from that,” Logano said, in speaking of how strong he qualified versus their struggles in practice. “Just lost a little speed as qualifying went. It’s amazing how guys would run 80s like that in the third run. We’ll just have to figure out what we need to do to keep speed in the car.”
Ryan Newman, the fourth driver with a shot at the championship, would qualify 21st.
RT @OnPitRoad_: NSCS: Jeff Gordon scores pole award for Ford EcoBoost 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway by @ladybug388 http://t.co/BNmpYI2x04
We all know who the real champion is, by his record jeff gordon was cheated out of what was probably his last championship. NASCAR-set racing back 20 years with new format. I will not watch any more! When drivers like Gordon, Earnhardt and Johnson can get knocked out after such a strong season something is wrong. I no longer care to watch! Senior Fan!
Championships have been decided under different points formats throughout the years. No doubt the Chase format is an extreme shift from the old full year format, and no doubt this year’s format was a bigger change. However, the rules are set at the beginning of the year for the champion to be determined that way, all teams know that and fight under that system. At the end of the season, whichever driver and team performs best to the system standards, the champion is determined. For this year, it was Harvick. Perhaps Gordon will be the driver to do it next year as he certainly is one of the best right now. Thanks for stopping by OPR!