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SUNDAY, JUNE 10, 2012
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THE TIMES LEADER
www.timesleader.com
Points leader Biffle ‘fair’ during qualifying run The driver will start outside of the top 10 in today’s 400 miler at Pocono Raceway. By DEREK LEVARSE dlevarse@timesleader.com
LONG POND — Wobbling just slightly out of the first turn was enough to cost Greg Biffle a shot at the pole. And the Sprint Cup Series points leader knew it. “I was a lot better than that,” Biffle said of his qualifying time of 50.699 seconds, which placed him 13th in the field for today’s Pocono 400 Presented by #NASCAR. “It kind of bounced and slid up a little bit and chattered
in (turns) one and two, and I just lost that smooth transition and getting back to the gas early. I just missed it.” The freshly paved track at Pocono Raceway made for record qualifying times Saturday, but it didn’t make things easier on some of the circuit’s most successful drivers. Biffle, who holds a one-point lead over Matt Kenseth atop the standings, will start outside the top-10 for just the fourth time in 14 races this season. “In the tunnel (turn) I was fair, and in three I was about on the edge,” Biffle said. “I got all I could get down there, so probably a couple 10ths (of a second) in one is probably all I could have
gained. That’s still not where we needed to be.” Pocono hasn’t exactly endeared itself to Biffle in the past. Though he broke through with a win there in the 2010 August race, his average finish is 18th. Shortly before that victory, Biffle expressed disgust with the track’s safety issues to Sports Illustrated, predicting that “they’re going to kill somebody there” in the wake of an infamous crash by Kasey Kahne. With improved safety measures to go along with the new pavement, however, Biffle changed his tune this week, praising the updates to the site. Now his focus is on holding on to the points lead.
N A S C A R P O I N T S
ASSOCIATED PRESS/SCOTT LEPAGE
Team owner Jack Roush watches practice for the Sprint Cup race at Pocono Raceway on Friday in Long Pond.
ASSOCIATED PRESS/NIGEL KINRADE
Jeff Gordon, left, signs autographs for the fans during qualifying for the Sprint Cup race at Pocono Raceway on Saturday in Long Pond.
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Logano said. “I was thinking, ‘Man, it’s going to take an 80 (180 mph) to get it.’ Just going a little bit faster than my mock run yesterday was able to get it.” Logano’s effort didn’t escape Carl Edwards, whose speed of 178.886 was good for second. Paul Menard will start third and Kyle Busch fourth. “Joey had to go and show off
N A S C A R Race 1. Daytona 2. Phoenix 3. Las Vegas 4. Bristol 5. Fontana 6. Martinsville 7. Texas 8. Kansas 9. Richmond 10. Talladega 11. Darlington 12. Charlotte 13. Dover Race 14. Pocono 15. Michigan 16. Sonoma 17. Kentucky 18. Daytona 19. Loudon 20. Indanapolis 21. Pocono 22. Watkins Glen 23. Michigan 24. Bristol 25. Atlanta 26. Richmond 27. Chicago 28. Loudon 29. Dover 30. Talladega 31. Charlotte 32. Kansas 33. Martinsville 34. Texas 35. Phoenix 36. Homestead
Pole
Edwards Martin Kahne Biffle Hamlin Kahne Truex Allmendinger Martin Gordon Biffle Almirola Martin Date Today June 17 June 24 June 30 July 7 July 15 July 29 Aug. 5 Aug.12 Aug. 19 Aug. 25 Sept. 2 Sept. 8 Sept. 16 Sept. 23 Sept. 30 Oct. 7 Oct. 13 Oct. 21 Oct. 28 Nov. 4 Nov. 11 Nov. 18
for everybody and do what he did in practice,” Edwards said. “I’m telling you, I have to give Joey credit. … For me, it’s very difficult to run a fast lap yesterday, go through the night thinking of everything and come back a day later with pretty difficult conditions in turn one and back that effort up. “That’s pretty impressive.” Those difficult conditions were caused by an ARCA car blowing an engine in practice late Friday. Oil-dry wasn’t completely cleaned from the track, making the surface slick.
S P R I N T Winner
Kenseth Hamlin Stewart Keselowski Stewart Newman Biffle Hamlin Kyle Busch Keselowski Johnson Kahne Johnson Laps Miles 160 400 200 400 110 224 267 400.5 160 400 301 318.48 160 400 160 400 90 220.5 200 400 500 266.5 325 500.5 400 300 267 400.5 300 317.4 400 400 188 500.08 334 501 267 400.5 500 263 334 500.5 312 312 267 400
C U P
Second
Earnhardt Jr. Harvick Johnson Kenseth Kyle Busch Allmendinger Johnson Truex Earnhardt Jr. Kyle Busch Hamlin Hamlin Harvick 2011 Pole Kurt Busch Kurt Busch Logano rained out Martin Newman Ragan Logano Kyle Busch Biffle Newman Kahne Reutimann Kenseth Newman Truex Martin Stewart Biffle rained out Biffle Kenseth Edwards
Pos. Driver 1. Greg Biffle 2. Matt Kenseth 3. Dale Earnhardt Jr. 4. Denny Hamlin 5. Jimmie Johnson 6. Martin Truex Jr. 7. Kevin Harvick 8. Tony Stewart 9. Kyle Busch 10. Clint Bowyer 11. Brad Keselowski 12. Carl Edwards 13. Ryan Newman 14. Kasey Kahne 15. Paul Menard 16. Joey Logano 17. Aric Almirola 18. Jeff Burton 19. Marcos Ambrose 20. Juan Montoya 21. Jeff Gordon 22. Jamie McMurray 23. AJ Allmendinger 24. Mark Martin 25. Regan Smith 26. Kurt Busch 27. Bobby Labonte 28. Casey Mears 29. David Ragan 30. David Gilliland 31. Landon Cassill 32. Travis Kvapil 33. David Reutimann 34. Dave Blaney 35. David Stremme 36. J.J. Yeley 37. Michael McDowell 38. Brian Vickers 39. Brendan Gaughan 40. Ken Schrader 41. Terry Labonte 42. Tony Raines 43. Josh Wise 44. Michael Waltrip 45. Stephen Leicht 46. Scott Riggs 47. Hermie Sadler 48. Scott Speed 49. Bill Elliott 50. Robby Gordon
Points
Third
Fourth
Fifth
Hamlin Johnson Newman Bowyer Harvick Kenseth Gordon Kenseth Hamlin Kahne Kyle Busch Biffle Earnhardt Jr.
Burton Keselowski Edwards Vickers Edwards Truex Kenseth Biffle Kahne Biffle Truex Keselowski Bowyer TV Coverage Noon, TNT Noon, TNT 2 p.m., TNT 6:30 p.m.., TNT 6:30 p.m.., TNT Noon, TNT Noon, ESPN Noon, ESPN Noon, ESPN Noon, ESPN 7 p.m., ABC 6:30 p.m., ESPN 7 p.m., ABC 1 p.m., ESPN 1 p.m., ESPN 1 p.m., ESPN 1 p.m., ESPN 7 p.m., ABC 1 p.m., ESPN 1 p.m., ESPN 2 p.m., ESPN 2 p.m., ESPN 2 p.m., ESPN
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0 0 0 0 2 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 1 2 0 1 1 2 1 2 2 2 0 2 1 2 1 2 2 1 3 2 4 6 9 4 10 0 1 0 1 1 11 0 2 7 0 5 1 2
By JOHN ERZAR jerzar@timesleader.com
LONG POND – Reed Sorenson was fortunate. The trouble he experienced as the first driver out for qualifying Saturday didn’t mean a trip home. Sorenson’s No. 32 Ford shot up a trail of oil-dry on its attempt, a situation that stopped qualifying for about 40 minutes until Pocono Raceway’s track could be cleaned up. The oil-dry was left over from Friday when an ARCA car blew an engine. “When I went out there to come back around to take the green, I saw how wide it (the oil-dry) was,” Sorenson said. “Fortunately, we’re locked into the show here. If I wasn’t locked in the show, I would not have been too excited about sailing it off into (turn) one there, but we could go pretty easy through there just because we didn’t have to take any chances.” Sorenson’s team is 33rd in owners points. The top-35 in owners points gain automatic berths into each NASCAR Sprint Cup race. Still, it wasn’t all good news for Sorenson, who didn’t complete his run and will start 41st. “We had the fuel pressure go down,” Sorenson said, “so I just shut it off because it was barely running. We’ll be fine, though. They’ll fix it.”
Logano wasn’t exempt in his No. 20 Toyota. “Even when I went out there, I got to the trouble spot and got a little loose over it,” Logano said. “I was thinking, ‘Ah, I didn’t get to the bottom as well as I wanted to.’ I felt like I left a tenth-andhalf right there.” Logano’s pole was part of a productive day for Gibbs. The former Washington Redskins head coach had all three of his drivers qualify up front, with Denny Hamlin (fifth) joining Logano and Busch.
P O C O N O Pos. Driver................................................
1. Joey Logano 2. Carl Edwards 3. Paul Menard 4. Kyle Busch 5. Denny Hamlin 6. Mark Martin 7. Regan Smith 8. Dale Earnhardt Jr. 9. Marcos Ambrose 10. Kasey Kahne 11. Jamie McMurray 12. Jeff Gordon 13. Greg Biffle 14. Matt Kenseth 15. Landon Cassill 16. Clint Bowyer 17. Juan Pablo Montoya 18. Ryan Newman 19. A.J. Allmendinger 20. Jeff Burton 21. Kevin Harvick 22. Tony Stewart 23. Martin Truex Jr. 24. Jimmie Johnson 25. David Reutimann 26. Casey Mears 27. Bobby Labonte 28. Mike Bliss 29. Aric Almirola 30. Michael McDowell 31. Brad Keselowski 32. J.J. Yeley 33. Joe Nemechek 34. David Ragan 35. Josh Wise 36. David Gilliland 37. Travis Kvapil 38. Scott Riggs 39. Stacy Compton 40. Tony Raines 41. Reed Sorenson 42. Dave Blaney 43. Stephen Leicht
4 0 0
Despite two sub-par showings at Pocono last year, Hamlin has dominated the course, winning four times in 12 tries and finishing in sixth place or better in eight races. Hamlin, who enters today fourth in points, qualified in fifth place and nearly ran down polesitter Joey Logano before finishing .296 seconds off the lead. “We were on pace for the pole and just got loose in turn three and lost a bunch of time,” Hamlin said. “I wanted to get below 50 seconds. We have a great car for (today) and should be up front throughout the day. “Hopefully we can get the first win at Pocono on the new pavement.”
Sorenson survives slick start to day
Behind Races Poles Wins Top-5 Top-10 DNF
486 Leader 485 -1 476 -10 464 -22 453 -33 441 -45 440 -46 407 -79 406 -80 405 -81 400 -86 390 -96 366 -120 365 -121 364 -122 350 -136 329 -157 322 -164 321 -165 312 -174 311 -175 311 -175 292 -194 283 -203 282 -204 275 -211 266 -220 234 -252 222 -264 206 -280 187 -299 184 -302 175 -311 173 -313 103 -383 90 -396 67 -419 66 -420 50 -436 47 -439 42 -444 41 -445 41 -445 26 -460 23 -463 20 -466 13 -473 12 -474 7 -479 6 -480
S C H E D U L E
hap, creating some slippery conditions. Several drivers said that unexpected factor affected their times. “We went to bed last night thinking we were going to have a real good opportunity to qualify inside the top-five. But we got here this morning and the track was in real bad condition because of a car blowing a motor,” said Dale Earnhardt Jr., who will start eighth. “It just kind of threw a big curveball into everybody’s plans. So we didn’t really know what to expect.” One driver high in the standings who had few issues during qualifying was, naturally, Denny Hamlin.
S P R I N T C U P S TA N D I N G S
That was obvious when the first qualifier, Reed Sorsenson, made his run. A white plume trailed his No. 32 Ford, a sight similar to when an engine is about to expire. After Tony Raines made his attempt, qualifying was stopped for about 40 minutes until blowers cleaned the track. Conditions remained far from optimal when qualifying resumed, but improved as more cars made runs. “Sitting there on pit road ready to go, all you can think about is the first couple of cars that went out,” said David Ragan, the third driver out after the delay. “Dust flying, they’re skating all over the race track, so you’re a little timid coming to the green.”
Biffle Biffle Biffle Truex Earnhardt Jr. Earnhardt Jr. Martin Johnson Stewart Kenseth Stewart Kyle Busch Kenseth 2011 Winner Gordon Hamlin Kurt Busch Kyle Busch Ragan Newman Menard Keselowski Ambrose Kyle Busch Keselowski Gordon Harvick Stewart Stewart Kurt Busch Bowyer Kenseth Johnson Stewart Stewart Kahne Stewart
Biffle was hardly the only big name to struggle on the new surface on Saturday. Five-time Cup champion Jimmie Johnson qualified a disappointing 24th for his second worst starting position of the season. Johnson entered the weekend fifth in the standings. Reigning champ Tony Stewart (eighth in points) will start 22nd. Kenseth is one spot behind Biffle in 14th. Teams arrived in town earlier than usual this week to test on the new surface. But that extra time wasn’t much help for qualifying. An engine failure in turn one during a Friday practice session prompted the use of oil-dry to soak up residue from the mis-
POOLE WINS ARCA RACE Brennan Poole dominated the field Saturday afternoon in winning the ARCA Series Pocono 200. Poole led 77 of 80 laps, including the final 60, in
P R E S E N T E D L I N E U P
Number/Make
Speed
B Y
POCONO NOTEBOOK posting the victory. He started on the pole and led until surrendering the lead on lap 18 to Chris Buescher for three laps. Buescher finished fifth. Chad Hackenbracht was second, finishing more than five seconds behind Poole. Hazleton’s Steve Fox placed 15th and two laps behind the winner. The race had three cautions for 21 laps. NONE FOR NO. 9 Scratch Marcos Ambrose from the list of possible winners today. Ambrose, who drives the No. 9 Ford for Richard Petty, qualified ninth. The ninth starting spot has been a black hole when it comes to winning at Pocono. No driver has won starting ninth in 68 Cup races at the track. Every other top-10 starting spot has produced winners, with the pole sitter winning a record 13 times. KEEPING A SECRET Carl Edwards and Paul Menards qualified second and third, respectively, and admitted after qualifying they used scuffs – tires with a lap or two on them – instead of new tires. As for pole winner Joey Logano, he was asked by a reporter as he walked into his post-qualifying press conference. “That’s for me to know and you to find out,” Logano joked.
# N A S C A R Pocono Scouting Report
No. 20 Toyota 179.598 Won pole last August, led 44 laps, but finished 26th No. 99 Ford 178.866 Two-time Pocono winner has had a couple glitches here No. 27 Chevy 178.582 Has been 16th or better in his last four Pocono races No. 18 Toyota 178.575 Has come close to Pocono victory in three of last four races No. 11 Toyota 178.543 Four-time Pocono winner finished 19th in last year’s race No. 55 Toyota 178.228 Has been the Pocono bridesmaid six times in long career No. 78 Chevy 178.158 Two strong qualifying efforts prior yielded little here No. 88 Chevy 177.939 Not a good place to end his 142-race winless streak No. 9 Ford 177.862 Also-ran at Pocono since finishing sixth in June 2009 No. 5 Chevy 177.823 Solid Pocono qualifier struggled in his last four starts here No. 1 Chevy 177.658 Has an average finish of 28.3 in his last four Pocono starts No. 24 Chevy 177.536 Defending race winner always a threat at Pocono No. 16 Ford 177.518 Won here in Aug. 2008, but pretty average overall at Pocono No. 17 Ford 177.501 Traditionally better in the first Pocono race than the second No. 83 Toyota 177.204 Best qualifying effort ever at Pocono in four tries No. 15 Toyota 177.026 Backslid in last three Pocono starts after showing promise No. 42 Chevy 176.988 A 32nd last August put a dent in his Pocono momentum No. 39 Chevy 176.852 Has 13 consecutive top-18 finishes at Pocono No. 22 Dodge 176.803 Has been a middle-of-the-pack guy in his Pocono career No. 31 Chevy 176.658 Has been hit-or-miss in his 36-race career at Pocono No. 29 Chevy 176.543 Has eight top-10s at Pocono, but has led just five laps No. 14 Chevy 176.419 Has led just three laps at Pocono since win in June 2009 No. 56 Toyota 176.160 Has two top-10s in his last three Pocono races No. 48 Chevy 176.149 Knocked on the door of victory after 2004 Pocono sweep No. 51 Chevy 176.074 Pinch hitter for Kurt Busch has been ho-hum here No. 13 Ford 175.596 Average finish of 33rd in last three Pocono races No. 47 Toyota 175.576 Was dominant at Pocono well over a decade ago No. 19 Toyota 175.387 Might be one of the first drivers in the garage area No. 43 Ford 175.159 Regular who has never run Pocono in a Cup car No. 98 Ford 175.073 Doubtful he’ll run more than 50 laps before parking No.2 Dodge 174.880 Won at Pocono last August in only his fourth start here No. 49 Toyota 173.943 Recorded a DNF in each of his last five Pocono races No. 87 Toyota 173.869 Start-and-parker has DNFs in last seven Pocono races No. 34 Ford 173.853 His 34th last time here was his worst finish at Pocono No. 26 Ford 173.497 Rookie’s Pocono debut will likely end in an early DNF No. 38 Ford 173.240 Hasn’t been a factor in his previous 10 Pocono races No. 93 Toyota 171.854 Destine to finish in the low 20s based on Pocono history No. 23 Chevy 171.520 Start-and-park driver hasn’t finished a race this season No. 74 Chevy 171.155 First Pocono race since 2002 is also his first of the season No. 36 Chevy 167.411 Fourth start of the season, first since Talladega No. 32 Ford Own.Pts. Returns to Pocono for the first time since Aug. 2010 No. 10 Chevy Own.Pts. Has recorded a DNF in four of his last six Pocono races No. 33 Chevy 170.345 Placed 33rd in his only Pocono start back in July 2006 -- By John Erzar