The Joe Gibbs Racing Qualifying Report Presented by Interstate Batteries
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series – Pocono 500
Date: June 6, 2008
Event: Pocono 500
Series: NASCAR Sprint Cup Series
Location: Pocono (Pa.) Raceway (2.5-mile triangle)
Pole Winner: Kasey Kahne of Gillette Evernham Motorsports (Dodge)
JGR Lineup: Kyle Busch (10th 53.527 seconds at 168.139 mph)
Tony Stewart (12th, 53.554 seconds at 168.055 mph)
Denny Hamlin (16th, 53.605 seconds at 167.895 mph)
Kyle Busch, driver of the No. 18 M & M’s Toyota, led the three-car Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) contingent at Pocono (Pa.) Raceway by qualifying 10th for Sunday’s Pocono 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race. Busch turned a lap of 53.527 seconds at 168.139 mph on the 2.5-mile triangle.
“This is probably the best this M&M’s Toyota was, but the guys on the front row both laid down one whale of a lap,” said Busch, who left the track immediately after his qualifying run to fly to Texas Motor Speedway where he’ll participate in tonight’s NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race. “I’m glad it’s a top-10 start for us since we need a good starting spot for Sunday. We’re not all that happy with the way things have gone here this weekend. We’ve got some work to do. Addington (Steve, crew chief) is going to try to brainstorm something here. I’ll call him tonight and we’ll figure something out tomorrow, hopefully, and get better.”
Busch’s JGR teammates – Tony Stewart in the No. 20 Home Depot Toyota and Denny Hamlin in the No. 11 FedEx Ground Toyota – qualified 10th and 16th, respectively. Stewart turned a lap of 53.554 seconds at 168.055 mph, while Hamlin stopped the clocks at 53.605 seconds and 167.895 mph.
“I’m fairly satisfied with the lap,” said Stewart, who won the Pocono 500 in 2003. “We made some changes after practice and the good news is that we got The Home Depot car to respond to them. The bad news is that we still have a little bit of work to do. It wasn’t anything stellar, since we were a bit tight in practice but a little free on the qualifying run. But we’ll start toward the front and work on it some more in practice tomorrow.”
“Our FedEx car was really good in practice, which is a good sign for things to come in the race,” said Hamlin, who swept both races at Pocono in 2006 from the pole. “We just can’t get qualifying figured out. That (qualifying) lap, we slowed up four-tenths from where we were in practice, which I think maybe the track has slowed up a tenth or two, strictly because of conditions.”
Kasey Kahne captured his 15th career pole, his first of the season and his second at Pocono with a time of 52.873 seconds at 170.219 mph. Jimmie Johnson will start alongside Kahne on the outside of row one, as he timed in at 52.986 seconds at 169.856 mph. Mark Martin (53.287 seconds at 168.897 mph) was third, while Regan Smith (53.335 seconds at 168.745 mph) and Joe Nemechek (53.342 seconds at 168.723 mph) rounded out the top-five.
Forty-four drivers attempted to qualify for the Pocono 500, with J.J. Yeley being the only driver not to make the 43-car field.
As far as manufacturers went, Dodge took the top spot thanks to Kahne. Chevrolet was next best at the hands of Johnson, while Carl Edwards carried the flag for Ford by qualifying sixth at 53.407 seconds at 168.517 mph. The top Toyota came via A.J. Allmendinger, who qualified eighth with a time of 53.419 seconds at 168.479 mph.
The Pocono 500 gets underway on Sunday at 2 p.m. EDT with live, high-definition coverage provided by TNT with its pre-race show starting at 12:30 p.m. The race will also be broadcast on SIRIUS Satellite Radio Channel 128.
