Patrick grabs the Daytona 500 pole and history at Daytona
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)
NASCAR Canadian Tire Series Champ D.J. Kennington to tackle UNOH Battle of the Beach
“Last season’s over, on to 2013. We had a great year last year.”
With his NASCAR Canadian Tire Series Championship, D.J. Kennington guaranteed himself a starting position in one of the UNOH Battle of the Beach races – the race being his choice.
Kennington will make good on that guaranteed starting position this Tuesday, entering the K&N Pro Series event on Tuesday night.
“Pretty excited,” he said. “We have a really good car, good team, and hopefully if we can have any luck at all, we miss the carnage and have a good day.”
Kennington will drive the No. 28 Castrol Toyota at Daytona International Speedway for Bill McAnally Racing.
“We are grateful for the opportunity to compete in this exciting new event,” said BMR President Bill McAnally. “We anticipate it will attract the best caliber teams in NASCAR regional touring and we are glad to be a part of it. We want to thank all of our sponsors who made this possible – NAPA Auto Parts, Toyota, NAPA Filters, NGK and Castrol.”
McAnnally and Kennington have worked together in the past, teaming up for the 2010 running of the NASCAR All-Star Showdown at Irwindale Speedway. The event paired Kennington against 38 of the top drivers from the K&N Pro East Series, K&N Pro West Series, along with the NASCAR Mexico Series Champion. In that event, he started 15th and worked his way to the front, finishing second.
The St. Thomas, Ontario native won the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series Championship last year after winning seven races, including six in a row to become the sixth driver in NASCAR Touring Series history to do so. The season was so impressive that Kennington finished in the top five in every race, except one. He finished 21st at Barrie Speedway after fuel pump issues.
The two-time series champion got started in racing at the age of four in go-kart, and continued to move up the ranks from there.
“Loved the sport and it’s in my blood and unfortunately, I can’t get rid of it,” he said.
Kennington is set to return to the Canadian Tire Series in 2013, set to defend his title and possibly become the first driver to win three championships in the series. Kennington is currently one of three drivers that have won two championships; Scott Steckly and Andrew Ranger are the other two.
With the variety of tracks that the Canadian Tire Series goes to, it’s easy for a driver to have more than one favourite.
“Obviously, I like Delaware – it’s close to home,” he said of his favourite tracks. “It’s my home track. Saskatoon is really fun and beautiful facility, and so is Riverside. We got a lot of great places to race in Canada. As long as it’s a race track, I’m happy.
One neat addition to the 2013 schedule is the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series will be at Canadian Tire Motosports Park on Labour Day weekend with the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. There is a chance that you may see Kennington running both races.
“We’re working on it trying to put together a program for that race,” Kennington said of the truck race. “If we can get a good ride secured, we will be there.”
When it comes to those looking to follow in the champ’s footsteps, he says get out and get involved in the sport.
“Get involved and try to get in with a team, even if you’re helping out just working on the cars,” he said. “Get to know people. I found that the more people you know, the easier it is to perform because it’s people that make this sport. If you don’t get out there and get involved, nobody will know who you are so if you get out and get involved, they’ll know who you are.”
Stewart laments after Sprint Unlimited: ‘Tonight is why I haven’t won the Daytona 500 yet’
Tony Stewart acknowledged he had a pretty eventful Saturday night in the Sprint Unlimited. Mostly because of the positions he put himself and his competitors in, which he takes responsibility for.
Stewart finished fourth in the exhibition race held for former winners of the race as well as pole winners from 2012. His Mobil 1 / Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet was one of the fastest on track, challenging for the lead and showing the ability to go from the back of the pack to the front, repeatedly.
But 15 laps into the first segment Stewart made a mistake. Looking to jump in line in front of Marcos Ambrose he cut across the nose of the No. 9 and got sideways. The result was drivers behind Stewart reacting and creating a six-car wreck. Then late in the second segment he made contact with Dale Earnhardt Jr. when Earnhardt Jr. made a move three-wide.
“I self-cleared myself in [turn] one and wasn’t. I don’t think I was clear obviously,” said Stewart afterwards about his night. “I clipped whoever was in third [Ambrose]. Dale Jr. came down to the middle and where he was at made me really tight. I got up into him and then I got into him and couldn’t get off of him, bounced off of him about three times.
“I made sure our spotter told him what happened, but I definitely was in enough interesting spots tonight for sure and most of them I put myself in.”
Stewart, who started 14th, won the first 30-lap segment. He was never far from the front and the second segment was no different, even after the contact with Earnhardt Jr. But Stewart credited NASCAR’s new car, the Gen6, saying that he was pretty impressed with how solid the car is and how the contact never changed his balance.
The third segment however, Stewart found himself in the tire tracks of eventual winner Kevin Harvick. Following the Budweiser Chevrolet for most of the final 20 laps before trying to make his move on the final lap. Stewart though, again put himself in the wrong position and was left to watch Harvick and others scoot away.
“Tonight is the reason why I haven’t won the Daytona 500 yet. I’m not sure where I’ve got to be on the last lap there and what to do,” he said. “We heard the Fords were ganging up and trying something.
“Then we saw the No. 22 [Joey Logano] on the bottom all of a sudden, so I went where I thought was the right place to be and we lost two spots with it. I would rather try something and it not work than stay and lose a bunch of spots and I would probably be more frustrated because I didn’t try something.”
Even still, Stewart felt he learned a lot ahead of next Sunday’s Daytona 500. A race, as he noted, he has yet to win. Fortunately, Stewart-Haas Racing has cars for Speedweeks which are fast and all have a shot to win the 55th annual event. That, above all else, is what Stewart is most proud of, even after a disappointing night.
“We’ve got really good race cars. I’m really proud of the Hendrick engine department and everybody at Stewart-Haas,” said the team owner. “To go through the winter these guys have gone through and trying to build cars at the last minute because of the shortage of parts and to bring two cars down here that are this fast.
“I’m really proud of our organization right now.”
