Ryan Blaney may have won the pole for Saturday night’s Go Bowling 400, but once again the story was which drivers didn’t make it onto the track during qualifying Friday at Kansas Speedway.
NASCAR Kansas Speedway 2017 qualifying results: Ryan Blaney wins 1st career pole
Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Jimmie Johnson were among a group of drivers who had issues passing inspection and didn’t post a qualifying speed.
Photo by Sean Gardner/Getty Images
Eleven drivers didn’t post speed, 10 of them because their cars were found to have irregularities and failed to pass pre-qualifying NASCAR technical inspection. The list of those who watched time trials go on without them includes: three-time Kansas winner Jimmie Johnson, Dale Earnhardt Jr., local favorite Clint Bowyer, rookie Erik Jones, and Kasey Kahne.
Several teams passed inspection after qualifying had already started and were able to record a time, among them Martin Truex Jr. (qualified third), Kurt Busch (sixth), and Jamie McMurray (12th). Levine Racing’s Michael McDowell elected to sit out after blowing an engine during final practice Friday.
Despite not participating in qualifying on Friday, all 11 drivers that missed the session will start Saturday night’s race — albeit at the rear of the 40-car field.
“I’m not the best at qualifying anyway, so this takes all the pressure off of me and my job at what I do behind the wheel,” said Johnson, who’s won a track-best three times at Kansas. “I’m disappointed we didn’t get a chance to go out, but I love passing cars and there’s a lot of them on this race track so we’ll be fine.”
Kansas is the second 1.5-mile track in a row where teams had issues passing inspection. In April at Texas Motor Speedway, nine teams couldn’t get through tech — including Earnhardt and Kahne, Hendrick Motorsports teammates.
NASCAR modified its rules for teams presenting its cars for inspection before the season, requiring a team to restart the entire process from the beginning if it failed any of the four inspection stations. Previously, if a team failed a particular station it could fix the discretion, then resume the process where it left off.
The change has caused many delays throughout the year, most notably at Texas and Kansas. Many teams contend NASCAR’s Laser Inspection Station is inaccurate and lacks consistency, while officials contend the onus is on the teams to have cars that conform to the rules.
“We felt like we should have been able to pass and we actually ran the car through right after practice and everything was good,” Earnhardt said. “I don’t know why it failed, but I’m sure that is the way everybody feels that didn’t get through it’s like they don’t understand what is going on.”
Said Scott Miller, NASCAR competition director: “It’s disappointing I’m sure, to a lot of the competitors that they weren’t able to qualify, but it’s disappointing to us that they aren’t presenting their cars in a way that they make it through inspection. Kind of the worst of both worlds actually.”
The inspection troubles overshadowed Blaney winning his first career pole, and the first for storied Wood Brothers Racing since 2004. Blaney’s 189.600 mph lap edged Team Penske’s Joey Logano by 0.060 seconds.
“We have been really close a couple times this year, but it feels good to get it done,” Blaney said. “I know it is only qualifying but it feels really cool to get this first pole. It says a lot about this entire team.”
Truex qualified third, followed by Ricky Stenhouse Jr., who won last week at Talladega Superspeedway, and Kyle Busch. Truex dominated this race a year ago, leading 172 of a possible 267 laps, before being slowed by an issue with a wheel hub. That opened the door for Busch to score his first Kansas win.
“This place has been good and bad,” Truex said. “We’ve led a lot of laps here and had a really good track record running well and haven’t been able to win yet.”
Position | No. | Driver | Car | Speed (mph) |
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