NASCAR Atlanta Starting Lineup: Tony Stewart On Surprising Pole For Tonight’s Race

Tony Stewart will lead the starting lineup for tonight’s NASCAR race at Atlanta Motor Speedway, and that’s a bit surprising.

Why? Because as good as Stewart is – three championships and 47 career wins – the driver has never been much of a qualifier.

Stewart’s pole position earned in Friday’s qualifying was just the 14th of his 14-year career – and just his fourth pole in the last seven years.

So what gives? Why isn’t Stewart a good qualifier?

“I think the biggest thing is we get so focused on the race balance of the car that I just never historically in this series been a good qualifier,” he said. “I don’t know why that is. I’ve just never been great on it. I feel like we’re always good in race runs, but qualifying is just obviously not my strong suit.

“That’s kind of what makes today cool. ... I wish I could qualify better more often, because I have to pass more cars every week when we start where we qualify normally.”

Here’s the full starting lineup for NASCAR’s Atlanta race tonight (set for a green-flag time of 7:49 p.m. Eastern):