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Tops in final practice, former winner doesn’t advance to second round

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SONOMA, California — Clint Bowyer was at a loss to explain what happened between Friday’s final practice session, where his No. 15 Toyota was fastest, and Saturday morning’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Coors Light Pole Qualifying session, where the Michael Waltrip Racing driver was much slower than expected.
 
Bowyer could do no better than 25th fastest in the first round of knockout qualifying at the 1.99-mile road course. That will be his position on the grid for the start of Sunday’s Toyota/Save Mart 350.

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"Well, that wasn’t what we expected," Bowyer said after qualifying, in the understatement of the day. "We were fast all day (Friday) — just didn’t have enough grip and missed Turn 4.
 
But Bowyer was philosophical.
 
"We’ll just have to pass a few more cars (on Sunday)."

TRAFFIC JAM KNOCKS OUT DALE JR.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. had a strong qualifying lap in the works on Saturday morning at Sonoma Raceway until he ran up behind a slower car in the racing groove.
 
With his progress impeded, Earnhardt failed to advance to the final round of the first knockout qualifying session on a road course and had to settle for the 17th starting spot for Sunday’s Toyota/Save Mart 350, the 16th NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race of the season.
 
"We had a good lap going, but the No. 66 (Tomy Drissi) ran in the racing groove on his get up (to speed) lap and didn’t get out of the way," said Earnhardt, who had been fast in both of Friday’s practice sessions. "We missed the top 12.  We would have made it.
 
"We ran about a tenth slower than our best lap going around him on the outside of Turn 9. That’s real disappointing, but the car has been great. Hopefully, we’ll be able to have a good run Sunday starting kind of mid-pack. It’s going to be a little busy where we are going to be, but hopefully we can move forward."
 
WHO NEEDS PRACTICE?
Danica Patrick‘s No. 10 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet didn’t spend much time in qualifying trim on Friday at Sonoma Raceway. In fact, Patrick made only one mock qualifying run during both practice sessions combined.
 
But that didn’t prevent her from advancing to the second round of knockout qualifying on Saturday morning. Patrick was sixth fastest in the first round. In the second, she secured the 11th spot on the grid for Sunday’s Toyota/Save Mart 350.
 
"The GoDaddy car was pretty good," Patrick said after time trials. "We only made one qualifying run yesterday, but it felt good in the opening round today.
 
"It just got tight in the second session and we ended up 11th. We would have liked it to be better, but we’ll take it."
 
And it gave representatives from her primary sponsor something to look forward to.
 
"We’ve got a lot of folks from GoDaddy here (Sunday)," Patrick said, "so I’m happy we are starting up front."
 
Patrick started 31st and finished 29th at Sonoma last year, so she’s already well ahead of her 2013 pace.

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McMurray is the 11th different Coors Light Pole winner of the season

RELATED: Full starting lineup

SONOMA, California — Jamie McMurray saved the best for last on Saturday in winning the pole for Sunday’s Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway in record time.
 
The last driver to make his first attempt in the 10-minute second round of NASCAR Sprint Cup Series knockout qualifying, McMurray knocked AJ Allmendinger off the provisional pole for the first road course race of the season.
 
McMurray’s speed of 96.350 mph eclipsed Marcos Ambrose‘s 2012 track qualifying record of 95.262 mph. Allmendinger went out early in the final session, and his speed of 96.088 mph held up until McMurray made his late run.

The Coors Light Pole award was McMurray’s 10th in 418 Sprint Cup races and his third at Sonoma. His track record was the 11th set this year under the new knockout qualifying system.
 
And McMurray won the pole after bumping his way back into the top 12 in his second run in the first round.
 
"I was a little disappointed that we had to go back out and make another lap to get into the top 12, because I thought that was going to ruin our chances of getting a good spot or sitting on the pole," McMurray said.
 
"This knockout qualifying, it’s an emotional roller coaster, from not making it in the top 12 and having to go back out and bump your way in to then being on the pole. There’s a lot of highs and lows that go with that.
 
"It’s really cool for us to get bumped out and then come back and sit on the pole."
 
Kyle Larson, McMurray’s teammate at Chip Ganassi Racing, qualified third at 95.942 mph for his first Sprint Cup road race — after winning the pole for the NASCAR K&N Pro Series West race earlier in the day.
 
Allmendinger’s front-row effort came as something of a surprise for the driver of the No. 47 JTG/Daugherty Racing Chevrolet.
 
"I was nervous about qualifying," Allmendinger said. "Quite honestly, we weren’t that good in qualifying trim (during Friday’s practice), so to be on the front row, it could be a lot worse, and we’ll go racing tomorrow."
 
Larson said he discussed every corner with McMurray and put the knowledge to use.
 
"It’s great to have a teammate like that who’s willing to help in every respect," Larson said. "We waited a while to go (in the first round) just to get a clean lap. I think that was pretty key for the first session, to get into the top 12.
 
"I thought I gave up time in a couple of spots. It would have been nice to get the pole, but Jamie was really fast there. But good day — it was a lot better than I thought I was going to qualify."
 
Carl Edwards claimed the fourth starting spot, followed by Kurt Busch, Kevin Harvick and Ryan Newman. Brian Vickers, Paul Menard, Joey Logano, Danica Patrick and Casey Mears completed the top 12.
 
In the first round, 22 drivers beat the Ambrose’s old track record. Logano led the way at 96.197 mph, a number he posted on his second run. That eclipsed the speed of Allmendinger, who ran 96.111 mph on his only timed lap of the 30-minute first round.
 
Even though tires fell off from one run to the next, many drivers improved their times on their second runs, as the track took on Goodyear rubber, after the K&N Pro Series West had qualified earlier Saturday morning on Hoosier tires.
 
The major surprise of the first session was Ambrose’s failure to advance to the final round. The Australian driver, a perennial favorite at every road course, could do no better than 23rd in two attempts and will start from that spot on the grid on Sunday, one place behind six-time series champion Jimmie Johnson.

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Posted on by Holly Cain

All four Hendrick drivers qualify outside the top 10 for the first time in 2014

RELATED: Full qualifying results | Qualifying recap

SONOMA, Calif. — While it was of little surprise that Jamie McMurray and AJ Allmendinger won front row starting positions for Sunday’s Save Mart 350, there will be plenty of anomaly farther back on the starting grid thanks to an eventful morning of knockout qualifying Saturday on the Sonoma Raceway road course.

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Rookie Kyle Larson will start third in his very first Sprint Cup race at the 1.99-mile, 10-turn course, and Danica Patrick’s 11th-place starting position is her first top-12 start in a month and only fourth of the season. Casey Mears will start 12th, only his second top-12 start of the year.

Equally as newsworthy was that not a single of the four Hendrick Motorsports cars advanced past the first 30-minute qualifying session despite being quick in practice on Friday. Jeff Gordon’s 15th-place qualifying effort was tops on the team. His teammates Dale Earnhardt Jr. (17th), Jimmie Johnson (22nd) and Kasey Kahne (30th) will have some ground to make up to earn HMS its sixth consecutive win this year.

Marcos Ambrose, who held the track’s qualifying record before McMurray’s fast lap (96.350 mph) on Saturday, will start 23rd directly behind two-time Sonoma winner Tony Stewart in 21st — the only member of his four-car Stewart-Haas Racing team not to advance to the final qualifying round.

Last year’s winner Martin Truex Jr. will start 18th and Clint Bowyer, the 2012 winner at the track and among the fastest in practice, will line up 25th on the grid.

The track’s all-time winningest driver, with five wins, and current Sprint Cup Series championship leader Gordon conceded he was surprised with qualifying in general and his effort in particular, but wasn’t overly concerned about his chances in Sunday’s race.

"When we come here to Sonoma — and as good as yesterday went — I was optimistic we’d be top-five or maybe even have a shot at the pole," said Gordon, who is driving the No. 24 Panasonic-sponsored Chevy this weekend.

"I honestly thought that first lap was going to be good enough to get us through.

"It’s disappointing. We pride ourselves on being good on a road course, especially here at Sonoma.

"We’ll talk to our teammates and see what they were dealing with as well. It’s very disappointing not to have any Hendrick cars in that top-12.

"I feel really good about the race though. We didn’t show a lot of speed in qualifying form yesterday either.

"There’s a lot of tough competition out there and that’s the bottom line. We didn’t do our jobs well enough to get in (the top-12). Talk to me tomorrow when the race is over and if you don’t see a Hendrick car in the top five or six then we’ll have a concern."

 

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See where your favorite drivers will roll off the grid

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Pos

Car

Driver

Team

1

1

Jamie McMurray

Cessna Chevrolet

2

47

AJ Allmendinger

Kingsford / Clorox Chevrolet

3

42

Kyle Larson #

Target Chevrolet

4

99

Carl Edwards

Aflac Ford

5

41

Kurt Busch

Haas Automation Chevrolet

6

4

Kevin Harvick

Outback / Budweiser Folds of Honor Chevrolet

7

31

Ryan Newman

Caterpillar Chevrolet

8

55

Brian Vickers

Aaron’s Dream Machine Toyota

9

27

Paul Menard

Richmond / Menards Chevrolet

10

22

Joey Logano

Shell Pennzoil Ford

11

10

Danica Patrick

GoDaddy Chevrolet

12

13

Casey Mears

GEICO Chevrolet

13

2

Brad Keselowski

Alliance Truck Parts Ford

14

20

Matt Kenseth

Dollar General Toyota

15

24

Jeff Gordon

Panasonic Chevrolet

16

11

Denny Hamlin

FedEx Freight Toyota

17

88

Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Kelley Blue Book Chevrolet

18

78

Martin Truex Jr.

Furniture Row Chevrolet

19

16

Greg Biffle

3M Ford

20

18

Kyle Busch

M&M’s Pretzel Toyota

21

14

Tony Stewart

Mobil 1 / Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet

22

48

Jimmie Johnson

Lowe’s Chevrolet

23

9

Marcos Ambrose

DeWalt Ford

24

17

Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

EcoPower Oil Ford

25

15

Clint Bowyer

5-hour Energy Toyota

26

3

Austin Dillon #

Dow Chevrolet

27

38

David Gilliland

Love’s Travel Stop Ford

28

95

Michael McDowell

K-LOVE Radio Ford

29

43

Aric Almirola

Nathan’s Famous Ford

30

5

Kasey Kahne

Great Clips Chevrolet

31

34

David Ragan

Long John Silver’s Free Fish & Fries Ford

32

26

Cole Whitt #

Rinnai Tankless Water Heaters Toyota

33

98

Josh Wise

Dogecoin / Reddit.com Chevrolet

34

83

Ryan Truex #

Burger King Toyota

35

51

Justin Allgaier #

Brandt Professional Agriculture Chevrolet

36

33

Alex Kennedy

Media CAST Chevrolet

37

40

Timmy Hill

carsforsale.com Chevrolet

38

23

Alex Bowman #

Dr Pepper Toyota

39

44

David Mayhew

Phoenix Warehouse Chevrolet

40

36

Reed Sorenson

Theme Park Connection Chevrolet

41

32

Boris Said

7-Eleven / Amerigas Ford

42

7

Michael Annett #

Pilot / Flying J Chevrolet

43

66

Tomy Drissi

MightyHercules.com Toyota

 

(i) Ineligible for driver points in this series

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See where drivers will make their stops during the Toyota/Save Mart 350

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After a record-setting qualifying lap that won him the Coors Light Pole Award, Jamie McMurray got first selection of pit stalls. The No. 1 team chose a pit stall with an opening in front of it, alongside the start/finish line.

Third-place finisher Kyle Larson followed suit in the No. 42, selecting the pit stall across from McMurray. AJ Allemendinger, who selected second, picked the last pit stall in the row for the No. 47 team. 11th-place qualifier Danica Patrick took the first.

The Toyota/Save-Mart 350 will begin on Sunday at 3 p.m. ET, with coverage on TNT.

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See the pit stall assignments for Saturday’s Gardner Denver 200 Fired Up by Johnsonville

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The pit stall assignments are out for Saturday’s NASCAR Nationwide Series Gardner Denver 200 Fired Up by Johnsonville at Road America (2:45 p.m. ET, ABC).

Open-wheel veteran Alex Tagliani won the Coors Light Qualifying Pole Award driving the No. 22 for Team Penske and got first pick of pit stalls.

Tagliani chose the first pit stall onto pit road.

Rookie Dylan Kwasniewski, Carlos Contreras, Brendan Gaughan and James Buescher all chose stalls win an empty space in front of them. See where each team will put using the graphic above.

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Tagliani qualifies up front in first return to the Nationwide Series since 2012

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Open-wheel veteran Alex Tagliani won the Coors Light Pole Award on Saturday at Road America for the Nationwide Series Gardner Denver 200 Fired Up by Johnsonville as he piloted the No. 22 Team Penske Ford to the front.

This is Tagliani’s first return to the Nationwide Series since 2012 and his first pole at Road America. 

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Qualifying second was rookie Dylan Kwasniewski.

Nationwide Series points leader Regan Smith, Sam Hornish Jr. and Brendan Gaughan round out the starting lineup’s top five.

After briefly going off-course, Trevor Bayne failed to move on to the final round and qualified 15th. 

No. 70 Derrike Cope brought out the first and only caution when he spun in Turn 8. 

The Nationwide Series Gardner Denver 200 Fired Up by Johnsonville will take place Saturday at 2:45 p.m. ET with coverage on ESPN2. 

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Posted on by Zack Albert

Kwasniewski: "It was a little sketchy at points, but it was fine."

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ELKHART LAKE, Wis. — The one longest day of the year only comes around, well, once a year. But Saturday’s summer solstice brought an even rarer occurrence — NASCAR racing in the rain. 

Of all the variables that NASCAR Nationwide Series teams faced on the treacherous Road America circuit in Saturday’s Gardner Denver 200 Fired Up by Johnsonville, one that wasn’t initially envisioned was for wet weather. As a result, a NASCAR national series bolted on rain tires for only the third time under race conditions in the sport’s modern history, throwing a wild wrench into the Nationwide tour’s first road-course race of the season.

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"It was something different. We don’t get to do that very much. Or ever, really," said fourth-place finisher Chase Elliott, who called the experience "a blast" despite the windshield of his JR Motorsports No. 9 Chevrolet being cloudy and caked over after it was over. "I thought it was fun. It’s a mess, but it’s fun."

Spots of rain on portions of the track forced an early holding pattern and delayed the start of the 53-lap race, which was extended three laps beyond the scheduled distance because of a green-white-checkered overtime finish. Shortly before the opening pace laps, NASCAR officials ordered teams to install wiper blades in preparation for the advancing weather.

The early precipitation subsided but returned in heavier doses covering the entire 4.048-mile layout near the halfway point, forcing NASCAR officials to mandate a change to grooved rain tires for the 38-car field on Lap 27. Though the race neared the finish with brief periods of sunshine that eventually dried part of the racing line, the damp track still made for a constant eggshell walk for drivers with numerous off-course excursions that benefited some and hurt others.

The one who benefited most was Brendan Gaughan, who once served as a driving instructor at Road America and notched his first NASCAR national series victory since Oct. 11, 2003.

"I love racing in the rain. It’s fun. And when you’re good at it, it makes it even more fun," said Gaughan, who led eight laps. "I hadn’t smelled blood in a long time. That’s something I’ve been lacking lately is that killer attitude and when it started to rain — even without the wiper blade — I started to smell blood and said, ‘I’m coming.’ … It was exciting. Tiptoe-ing around is fun to do."

NASCAR had run just two previous Nationwide Series races in rainy conditions — both at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve venue in Montreal (2008, 2010). In the first of those events, the race was halted early because of a downpour that crippled visibility and created hazardous conditions with standing water.

Saturday’s race never quite reached the torrential stage, but the drivers’ ability to see was put to the test — especially when late-race sunshine created a massive glare. In those instances, the blinking rear taillight on every car offered some degree of help.

"I couldn’t see two cars in front of me at all, so you really had to judge it off where that light was at," said rookie Dylan Kwasniewski, who finished 26th after early transmission problems. "If you didn’t have that, you’d just pop out of nowhere and now you have a car in front of you. It was a little sketchy at points, but it was fine."

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Posted on by Zack Albert

Drivers seemed civil after contact, but had differing opinions of the final laps

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ELKHART LAKE, Wis. — As far as post-race confrontations go, the chit-chat between Chase Elliott and Alex Tagliani after the cool-down lap at Road America was as civil as could be.

Elliott, the NASCAR Nationwide Series rookie, and Tagliani, the veteran road-racer with a deep open-wheel background, shook hands after their final-lap collision in the Gardner Denver 200, but there was still some difference of opinion in the moments after the engines went quiet.

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Tagliani, the Coors Light Pole Award winner in Saturday morning qualifying, seemingly had the race in hand until a late caution period for Justin Marks’ stalled car bunched the field and forced an overtime finish. During the yellow, Tagliani’s Team Penske entry sputtered to a stop on the 14-turn, 4.048-mile course. By the time his No. 22 Ford was refueled and equipped with racing slicks as the track began to dry, he was back in 23rd place as the last car on the lead lap. 

But Tagliani’s car thrived on the dry-weather tires for the two-lap dash to the finish, furiously rallying into the top five on the long white-flag lap. In driving all the way to a runner-up finish behind race winner Brendan Gaughan, Tagliani brushed with Elliott as they worked through Turns 12 and 13, forcing both cars out of shape. It left Elliott, still laboring on wet-weather tires, settling for fourth and making a point to talk with the Canadian after the race. 

"As soon as he saw my slicks, he goes, ‘OK, I understand,’" said Tagliani, who was making his first NASCAR start since 2012. "He took away the dry line so for me to pass him, I had to go in the wet, but I’m on slicks so for sure, I slid door to door, but I was already on the inside of him. Finally, he said he understood, so I said, ‘good job.’ That was it." 

Elliott’s version of the chat was much the same, but he indicated there may have been more take than give on Tagliani’s part.

"He had slicks on and I understand where he’s coming from. I know he’s trying to go for the win, but at that point on the race track, he’s not going to catch the 62 (Gaughan)," Elliott said. "I know those guys are racing for an owners’ championship and we are, too. I think it’s just a little bit of respect. That could’ve very easily wrecked both of us there, and he just happened to get it out of gear and save it. 

"I just hate to take a chance — we just have three corners to go, and you’re going to wreck both of us. I just hate to see it go down like that."

And Elliott later took to Twitter to address what he said about Tagliani on ESPN.

Even with the slightly sour final outcome, Elliott was able to take some solace in the big-picture outlook and his ability to power through difficulties. Despite losing all of Friday’s practice time after he missed a shift on his warm-up lap, forcing his JR Motorsports team to change engines in his No. 9 Chevrolet, Elliott battled back. The driver also recovered from an off-course moment in the race and managed to chop nine points off Regan Smith’s lead in the series standings. He remains third, but ranks just 11 points back heading to the Nationwide Series’ next event, Friday at Kentucky Speedway. 

"I wouldn’t say great," Elliott said in describing his day. "We were just caught in some good circumstances for us there at the end that put us in position. Failure number three on the weekend for me — so missed shift yesterday, ran off the track and then couldn’t get the job done — so I’m going to have to step up before we come back to one of these places."

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Sonoma has seen nine different winners in past nine races at California road course

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SONOMA, Calif. – There was a time when a handful of drivers dominated road-course races in NASCAR’s Sprint Cup Series.
 
Jeff Gordon once won three straight at Sonoma Raceway, site of Sunday’s Toyota/Save Mart 350 (3 p.m. ET, TNT), and five out of nine. He won three in a row and four of five at Watkins Glen, the only other road-course stop on the schedule for Sprint Cup teams.
 
Tony Stewart won five of eight during a stretch at Watkins Glen; Mark Martin won three straight there. Ricky Rudd and Rusty Wallace could always be considered heavy favorites when turning right came into play. They’ve both got the trophies to prove it.
 
But with nine different winners in the past nine races at Sonoma, has that time passed?

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Drivers have a better understanding of what they need to go fast on a road course, Joey Logano, driver of the Team Penske No. 22 Ford, said Friday. Domination is dead.
 
"Now there are 20 guys that can win this race and I think over the last few years, you look here at Sonoma — the (Michael Waltrip Racing) cars have done really well. They’ve had some really good drivers and this rules change can be a big change for them, you never know.
 
"… The strategy has to play out perfectly, your race has to go well — there’s so much that goes into winning these road course races, and that’s what makes this special because there are only two of them a year. So if you’re able to do that, it’s kind of a special win."
 
MWR drivers have won the last two Sonoma races – Martin Truex Jr. a year ago and Clint Bowyer in 2012. The seven other winners were Kurt Busch, Jimmie Johnson, Kasey Kahne, Kyle Busch, Juan Pablo Montoya, Gordon and Stewart.
 
Truex has since left MWR, and now drives for Furniture Row Racing. He was fourth and seventh in Friday’s two practices.
 
Montoya has departed to IndyCar and Team Penske, although he returned for a Sprint Cup start last week at Michigan and is entered in this year’s Cup race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
 
"I remember the year that Kasey Kahne won here; it was kind of a surprise to everybody," Jamie McMurray said. "But I think that all of us have gotten so much better at road course racing over the years that if you put someone in the right position in the end, they’re capable of winning.
 
"And MWR has been really good here. … I love Clint Bowyer to death, but I would never have put him in winning a road course category, right? But when you look back, he’s done really well at road course racing. So, yeah, it’s kind of circumstantial."
 
Strategy, starting position and tire management all come into play at Sonoma, where some teams may try to go the distance with just two pit stops, hoping track position will win out.
 
Only one winner has come from the front row in the last four starts, and it’s been a decade since the pole winner won a race here (Jeff Gordon in 2004).
 
"Things evolve so much with this new rule package," Bowyer noted. "That setup that won the last two races … it won’t compete. I dig that about this sport. You have to be able to keep up with the times and keep pushing forward."
 
Hendrick Motorsports teams enter Sunday’s race on a five-race win streak, with victories by Gordon, Johnson and Dale Earnhardt Jr.
 
Johnson, with 69 career wins, said picking a Sonoma winner is the most difficult.
 
"Then when you add the fuel strategy that typically plays in, that shakes it up as well," the six-time Sprint Cup champion said.
 
"I think all four of our Hendrick cars will be capable … and we certainly want to keep the streak alive. But I can’t pick a favorite here.
 
"I probably could pick a favorite, but I don’t think there is a safe bet on a winner. I think there are 20, 25 cars that could win here."

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