Gary A. Vasquez-US Presswire
This weekend the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series is at Auto Club Speedway for the Auto Club 400 for the first and only time this year. The Sprint Cup Series only visits the track once a year, so teams are scrambling for speed with the generation six car. The car has been shown to have more mechanical grip than the previous car of tomorrow, meaning the field should spread out even faster than traditional NASCAR races at Fontana.
Qualifying is incredibly important on the 2.0 mile track considering how fast the field spreads out during the course of a green flag run. Drivers quickly establish themselves, passing is difficult, and often times the driver who leads the most laps dominates the race. Last year race winner Tony Stewart and runner-up Kyle Busch led 122 of the 128 rain shortened laps. Both drivers started in the top ten.
Friday, teams drew spots for qualifying, despite practice speeds set earlier in the day. Jimmie Johnson drew the first qualifying spot, more than likely the worst spot to draw. Qualifying began at 4:10 local time meaning qualifying would end right before sunlight.
Despite this, pole-sitter Denny Hamlin was one of the earlier qualifiers, but his lap of 38.410 seconds at 187.451 held up. This is surely a sign that the 11 car has a lot of speed and will be a driver to watch come Sunday.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. qualified 15th on the grid, with Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jimmie Johnson qualifying in 18th. Danica Patrick will end up starting 40th on Sunday, nearly shotgun on the field. This week, nobody went home, only 43 cars where entered. So expect the back-markers to either take this as an opportunity to run some more laps or park it even earlier than usual.
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