Richard Petty Motorsports driver, Aric Almirola, will start from the pole in Sunday’s Camping World RV Sales 500 at Talladega Superspeedway. The qualifying session was rained out due to morning rain showers that moved into the area on Saturday. Almirola commented, “We went into practice with a plan, me and Marcos got a big run on the pack and put up a good lap, we knew there was a small chance of rain today.”
Almirola was awarded the pole based on first practice speeds per the NASCAR rulebook. He turned a lap of 202.000 mph edging out Richard Childress Racing driver, Jeff Burton. Burton turned a lap of 201.987 mph in the Caterpillar Chevrolet. Burton talked about his outlook for tomorrow, “I think my outlook is probably about like everybody else’s – hope we miss the big wreck and make through that part and make it to the end.”
Almirola’s teammate, Marcos Ambrose, will start third in the DeWalt Ford after completed 21 laps in practice with a best lap of 201.876 mph. “It was a great day for Richard Petty Motorsports, we had a plan going in, we knew what we wanted to try to do, we had an expectation that there was a chance of rain today, so we played our strategy really well as a group and we’re going to get the benefit of that with the starting position tomorrow.”, Ambrose said after the lineup was set.
Martin Truex Jr. and Carl Edwards round out the top five. Other notables: Spring race winner, David Ragan, will start seventh. Dale Earnhardt Jr. will roll off eighth. The two drivers atop the standings, will share row six, with Johnson in 11th, and Kenseth in 12th.
Ford took six of the top ten spots, along with three Chevrolets and one Toyota. The green flag for the Camping World RV Sales 500 will fall at 1:00 pm local time.
