AMS Pit Notes: Brad Keselowski On the Pole for Hyundai Construction Equipment 200
News, notes and quotes on the third day of the Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 Weekend at Atlanta Motor Speedway
Keselowski wins his 20th career XFINITY Series pole
New qualifying rules led to an interesting sight at the Camping World Truck Series Hyundai Construction Equipment 200 qualifying Saturday.
Brad Keselowski ended up with the pole after just getting his car to the line in time for a lap. Keselowski was one of 11 cars lined up on pit road waiting to leave for the final round of qualifying. Of those, just Keselowski got a qualifying lap in and his 177.045 mile-per-hour pace surpassed Ben Kennedy, the only driver to go out right away in the final round.
“I was just surprised nobody went,” Keselowski said. “I knew we were out of time and I guess I just barely skimmed by as time expired. That’s always part of the fun. Qualifying with the trucks there’s always a little bit more gamesmanship than other qualifying because they draft so much. We played it just right.”
Kennedy had a lap of 176.684 miles per hour after running the oval all alone early in the third round of qualifying.
“We went down to the end of pit road and thought we could stop,” Kennedy said. “I guess we had to roll, which actually ended up turning out in our favor. We were the only truck that went out there at the beginning. I saw the replay and it looks like Keselowski just made it to the line in time.
“I’ll be honest, that’s wide open. That’s as much as that thing has without drafting partner out there so I think we’re got a really good truck for tonight.”
The rest of the lineup was set using drivers’ times from previous rounds.
Erik Jones, Cameron Hayley and Daniel Suarez round out the top five. Georgia native John Wes Townley was sisth, followed by Justin Boston, Joe Nemechek, James Buescher and Spencer Gallager.
Tyler Reddick, last week’s winner at Daytona, qualified 11th.
“They changed it up to where you can’t stop on pit road, but you can stop to the left at the end of pit road and wait your turn,” Reddick said. “Then everyone decided to go and someone had a bobble or slowed down a little bit. We were trying to get it down to the wire there and we just ran out of time.”
