Defending race-winner AJ Allmendinger wins pole at Watkins Glen
AJ Allmendinger completed a sweep of the road course poles in the Sprint Cup Series on Saturday.
After winning the pole at Sonoma in June, Allmendinger was the fastest qualifier in both rounds of qualifying at Watkins Glen and will start first on Sunday. He won last year’s race at Watkins Glen in a thrilling finish with Marcos Ambrose. The win was Allmendinger’s first-career Sprint Cup Series win and got him a berth in the Chase for the Sprint Cup.
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Martin Truex Jr., the 2013 winner at Sonoma, will start second. Tony Stewart, a five-time winner at Watkins Glen, starts third and Kevin Harvick, who won at Watkins Glen in 2006, starts fourth.
Jeff Gordon, Kyle Larson, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kyle Busch and Austin Dillon round out the top 10.
Allmendinger had issues with his engine at Sonoma and ended up finishing 37th. Watkins Glen represents his best chance for a win to get back into the Chase. He’s 23rd in points and his seventh-place finish at Pocono last week in the fuel-mileage frenzy finish was his first top-10 since the third race of the season.
“Last week we finally had some good luck on our side and made some good decisions,” Allmendinger said Friday. “[Crew chief Brian Burns] did a great job with the call to stay out later to make sure we had more fuel at the end to get a top 10. But I think our equipment is better, our communication and progression as a race team is better. We have had a lot more bad luck just in general (in 2015).”
Last year we just weren’t running well. But it really comes down to last year at this time I had never won a Sprint Cup race. To say when it comes down to time and if the opportunity is there what does it feel like? ‘Well I don’t know, I’ve never done it before.’ I know what it feels like now and I know what I have to do to put myself in that position. For that reason I think it’s a lot different from last year.”
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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!
