Tony Stewart takes pole for Bank of America 500 at Charlotte Motor Speedway – NASCAR news
Tony Stewart will be hoping he can bring his Championship push back on track as he took pole in the qualifying for the Bank of America 500 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway on Friday, October 14, 2011.
Stewart was clocked at 191.959 mph in 28.131 seconds. It was not at all smooth sailing for him as he had to wait for 10 more cars to complete their laps, all of them faster than him in practice, but none of them was able to break his time. The pole is Stewart’s
13th of his career and his first this season.
Stewart was not expecting pole position after his drive and was surprised at the finish.
“Sitting there after that lap, felt like it was going to be a top five or six,” Stewart said. “It was definitely better than we thought.”
He will be joined in the front row by Matt Kenseth, who clocked in at 191.918 mph with 28.137 seconds. Kenseth felt that he had a very good car and he should have taken the pole position.
“I feel bad. I wish I could do it again. I wish somebody had beat me by more than leaving a half-a-tenth (of a second) out there,” Keselowski said. “Looking forward to putting it in race trim and see what it drives like.”
Carl Edwards, who leads the championship with 1 point over Kevin Harvick, will start from third place. A.J. Allmendinger finished 4th and Greg Biffle followed him in 5th.
Ryan Newman followed his teammate Tony Stewart in picking up his performance as he qualified in 6th, his highest qualifying position since taking pole at Loudon.
Jimmie Johnson was the only other Chase driver in the top 10. He finished in 9th position.
Kevin Harvick qualified in 14th place with Dale Earnhardt Jr. following him in 15th. Denny Hamlin finished two places below him in 17th. Kurt Busch will start from 20th place with Jeff Gordon in 23rd place.
Brad Keselowski finished the lowest of all the Chasers as he will start from 26th place.
The Bank of America 500 is scheduled for Saturday, October 15, 2011 at 7:30pm Eastern Time (ET).
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