Danica Patrick backed up her two fast practice speeds that she had on Saturday with a slightly faster speed during her second qualifying lap on Sunday at Daytona International Speedway. Patrick grabbed the Coors Light Pole with lap of 196.434 mph (45.817 seconds) and became the first female driver to win a pole at NASCAR’s top level, the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.
Patrick is also the first rookie to win the Daytona 500 pole since Jimmie Johnson in 2002.
“If you’re anywhere but the front row, it’s really hard to see on race day. This just speaks volumes of Stewart-Haas Racing. It just shows what a great organization it is.” Patrick said.
On the outside of the front row will be 3-time Daytona 500 champion, Jeff Gordon. This will be Gordon’s fourth career front row start. Gordon last started on the front row back in 2011 with teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr., but would later start from the pole after Jr. wrecked in final practice.
“It’s great to be part of history. I can say I was the fastest guy today.” Gordon said.
Four of the top-5 qualifiers and five out of the top-10 were all powered by Hendrick Motorsports. But there was just something about that No.10 of Patrick that stood out amongst her teammates. Thanks to the new FOX feature, as Monte Dutton put it, “Imagination Racing” shows both cars on the screen running with the other cars as ghosts.
Tony Stewart, Gordon and Ryan Newman all appeared to have faster race cars going into turn-1, but when Patrick’s car got on the straightaway, it found speed that none of the other cars were able to find. Gordon found some speed down the straightaway, but he wasn’t able to muster enough strength to hold back Patrick’s lap. Patrick held off Gordon by 0.033 seconds to earn the pole position.
The 2011 Daytona 500 champion, Trevor Bayne will start his third 500 from the third position.
“I am happy to get a Ford up there because it wasn’t looking good up there at the beginning. We have the 1963 paint scheme here and all kinds of good stuff going on. I am proud to be a part of it.” Bayne said.
Rounding out the remaining top-10 were Ryan Newman, Stewart, Kasey Kahne, Denny Hamlin, Kyle Busch, Joey Logano, and the reigning/defending two-time Daytona 500 champion Matt Kenseth.
“It was exactly what I thought we were going to run. We were all in the trailer guessing what we were going to run and I guess they were right on. Not that that means anything, but you’ve got to have something to do on a full day at Daytona. It was pretty good.” Kenseth said.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. qualified in the 11th position.
It could have been a Stenika front row so it appeared when Ricky Stenhouse Jr. got on the track, but he bobbled going into turn-3 ever so slightly and had to settle for 12th.
Brian Keselowski almost didn’t attempt to qualify because of electrical issues, but had help from Carl Edwards to get the car re-fired, but had the slowest lap of the field. He ran about five seconds slower than Patrick’s pole speed.
The Gatorade Duels are Thursday and will determine the starting positions from 3-43. And to round out pole qualifying here at Daytona, we have your notables. Johnson (21st), Keselowski (23rd), Harvick (25th), Biffle (27th), Waltrip (31st), Kurt Busch (33rd)
