Kurt Busch wins pole at bumpy Pocono
Kurt Busch will start first for Sunday’s race at Pocono, though the biggest story from Friday’s practice and qualifying at the triangular 2.5-mile track is a set of bumps in turn two.
Thanks to a harsh winter in Pennsylvania, the bumps in the corner have been exaggerated. Cup cars are hitting the bump and sometimes being lifted off of the ground.
Track officials have said the bumps will be taken care of after the race – it’s not a prolem that can be rectified in a matter of hours.
We did have some bumps through there last year and they have just gotten more severe,” Dale Earnhardt Jr. said after practice Friday. “I think they are going to take some time in between the events here this weekend and in August to fix that. Having talked to them today I feel like that they understand that while we can get through this weekend with what is back there right now, it is probably not in their best interest to leave it as is. Because it will continue to get worse and I don’t think that we can get our racecars through there if it gets much worse than it is”
“I’m glad they are going to work on it. We can work on our cars and get it a little bit better. It was pretty wild, I went through there the first time this morning and had no idea it was back there. Luckily I didn’t go through there with a whole lot of confidence in the first place or speed because that was wild. We worked on the car and we can do things to make the ride quality better, but there is only so much we can do. It’s just very severe bumps.”
After winning the pole, Busch quipped that “There’s grocery store parking lots that are jealous of the three bumps that developed.”
He got the top starting spot with an assist from Denny Hamlin. Hamlin spun in turn one on his qualifying lap with approximately a minute left in the final round of qualifying. Hamlin couldn’t get his car refired (he didn’t hit the wall) and NASCAR threw the red flag with 39 seconds left. Only seven of the last round’s 12 drivers had made a lap.
Laps at Pocono take over 50 seconds to complete, so drivers who didn’t complete a lap were out of luck and starting in the back half of the top 12.
Carl Edwards will start alongside Busch on the front row. Martin Truex Jr. starts third, while Jeff Gordon, Kevin HArvick, Austin Dillon and Brad Keselowski round out the top seven. The five drivers who didn’t make a lap include Hamlin, Jimmie Johnson, Kyle Busch, Joey Logano and Kasey Kahne.
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Nick Bromberg is the editor of From The Marbles on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
