Suarez involved in wreck during second group of first round in qualifying
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Related: Full qualifying results
Austin Dillon won the Coors Light Pole Award at Daytona International Speedway for the NASCAR XFINITY Series season-opening Alert Today Florida 300.
The 2013 XFINITY Series champion posted a lap of 190.251 mph in the final round of the three-round group qualifying session at Daytona.
Justin Marks will join Dillon on the front row. Chad Boat and Brendan Gaughan will comprise Row 2, while Aric Almirola and Erik Jones will make up Row 3.
A large crash occurred in the second group of the opening round with Daniel Suarez, Tanner Berryhill, Carlos Contreras, Harrison Rhodes, Landon Cassill and Blake Koch among the cars involved in the wreck. The No. 18 car of Suarez was pretty torn up and he had to go to a backup car. Seven cars did not make the race, including Rhodes, Contreras and Berryhill.
Following the crash Kyle Busch, who is teammates with Suarez told FOX Sports 1 of the group qualifying, “This is not what it needs to be. Somehow, someway, this isn’t right.”
Busch later added, “you don’t want to see cars wrecking in qualifying. The show is the race.”
Shortly after the crash, qualifying was putting into a holding pattern due to some rain in the area. That delayed last about 40 minutes.
Dale Earnhardt Jr., who was not in the actual crash but in the group where it took place, had a slower time as a result and will start 40th, the last spot in the field. He got that spot as a result of his champions provisional in the series. Something he joked about on Twitter.
Guess I’m gonna use that champions provisional today. #ThingsYouSayAt40
— Dale Earnhardt Jr. (@DaleJr) February 21, 2015
The group qualifying procedure for Daytona, adjusted by NASCAR on Wednesday, saw the first round consist of four groups with each group alloted two minutes and 30 seconds to complete a lap. Once a vehicle started rolling off pit road, it couldn’t stop and had to proceed to the track. The fastest 24 advanced to the second round with consisted of two groups, which the same time frame as the first round. The top 12 moved on to the third and final round. This same format was used in Friday’s Keystone Light Pole Qualifying for the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series NextEra Energy Resources 250.
The Alert Today Florida 300 will be Saturday at 3:30 p.m. ET with TV coverage on FOX Sports 1.
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