Dashing the hopes of Junior Nation, who thought their favorite driver would win the pole for Sunday’s Geico 500, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. bested Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s speed during qualifying Saturday at Talladega Superspeedway.
NASCAR Talladega 2017 qualifying results: Ricky Stenhouse Jr. edges Dale Earnhardt Jr., takes Geico 500 pole
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Dale Earnhardt Jr. will lead the field to the green flag in Sunday’s Cup Series race at Talladega.
Photo by Sean Gardner/Getty Images
Earnhardt was the second-to-last driver to make an attempt in the second and final qualifying, knocking Brad Keselowski off the provisional pole top spot with a 190.780 mph lap. That effort caused his legion of fans to cheer loudly, though the euphoria proved short-lived when Stenhouse then rolled onto the 2.66-mph Alabama track and posted a 191.54 mph lap to unseat Earnhardt.
“I heard them all cheering when he got the (provisional) pole, hopefully they’re not too mad,” said Stenhouse after winning his second-career pole.
Earnhardt, who is retiring at season’s end, leads all active drivers with six Talladega wins, but Saturday marked the first time he had qualified on the front row. The margin of difference between Stenhouse and Earnhardt was 0.201 seconds.
“Really impressive run by Stenhouse,” Earnhardt said. “We come close. We seem to come close at Daytona and Talladega quite a bit. We are either second or whatever, but can’t seem to get the pole. Hopefully, we can get one before the season is out. It would be nice to get one in my last year knowing that I don’t really qualify all that well.
Matt Kenseth qualified fourth, followed by Trevor Bayne, Stenhouse’s Roush Fenway Racing teammate. Rounding out the top 10 were Kevin Harvick, rookie Daniel Suarez, Chase Elliott, Paul Menard, and Kyle Busch.
Stenhouse, Keselowski, Bayne, and Harvick all drive Ford-powered cars. In February, the manufacturer won the Daytona 500, the only other restrictor-plate race this season, with driver Kurt Busch, who qualified 15th on Saturday.
“All the Fords look fast,” Bayne said. “It doesn’t really matter where you start here because it’s such a chaotic race and it’s the luck of the draw on how you finish, but it at least puts us in a good position to start the race and to stay out of trouble. We know we’ve got a fast car and everybody knows we’ve got a fast car, so maybe they’ll be willing to work with us.”
D.J. Kennington was the only driver who failed to qualify for the 40-car field.
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