Jeff Gordon scored the pole position for next Sunday’s Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway. Photo by Patrick Smith/NASCAR via Getty Images
In his final start in the Daytona 500, Jeff Gordon will lead the field the green flag in next Sunday’s 57th running of the “Great American Race” after winning the pole during Sunday’s qualifying sessions.
Gordon topped the third and final round of qualifying with a lap of 44.711 seconds (201.293 mph) to earn his 78th-career Sprint Cup pole and his second in the Daytona 500.
Gordon’s teammate Jimmie Johnson took the outside pole with a lap of 44.746 (201.135 mph) to give Hendrick Motorsports a sweep of the front row. Denny Hamlin qualified third at 44.791, 200.933 mph, followed by his Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Matt Kenseth (44.952, 200.214 mph) and Kyle Busch (44.958, 200.187 mph).
However, Hamlin will have to start Thursday’s qualifying race from the rear of the field, as will Hendrick Motorsports’ Dale Earnhardt, Jr. after both cars failed post qualifying inspection. Hamlin’s track bar did not meet specifications, while Earnhardt’s Chevrolet did not meet the minimum height requirement.
Sunday’s race will mark the final Daytona 500 for Gordon, who announced last month he would retire from full-time competition at the end of the 2015 season.
Gordon has gone to Victory Lane three times in the season-opening event, including winning from the pole in 1999.
“That feels good, that is awesome,” said Gordon after winning the pole. “This is one of the most gratifying poles here at Daytona that I have ever had. Not just because my final Daytona 500, but because you have to try to plan it out and you have to try to play that chess match and we played it really well. That just feels very gratifying just as a total team effort to be able to have a 1-2 for Hendrick Motorsports and the front row.”
The qualifying sessions on Sunday locked in just the front row for the 500, while the rest of the field will be determined by their finishing order in Thursday’s twin Budweiser Duels 150-mile races.
Only four other drivers locked in their position for Sunday, including 2010 winner Jamie McMurray, Aric Almirola, Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. and Carl Edwards, who came into this weekend with no owner points and had to make the race on speed.
Sunday’s qualifying marked the first time that the “knockout qualifying” format had been used for the Daytona 500.
Introduced last year in an attempt to add some excitement over single-car qualifying, the format features three rounds of group qualifying which eliminates the slowest drivers while the fastest advance to the next round.
While the format was somewhat successful at smaller tracks, it was derided by drivers and fans alike during last year’s race at Talladega – like Daytona, a restrictor-plate track – where drivers hung back until the last minute before attempting to qualifying to try and gain an edge. In the end, several drivers waited so long they missed their qualifying attempt.
Coming into Sunday’s qualifying session, there was more confusion about how the qualifying format would play out and the legitimate fear that one small mistake made in a large pack of cars could have dire consequences for those trying to make it into Sunday’s race.
Reed Sorenson(44) and Clint Bowyer (15) set off this accident that gathered up Bobby Labonte (32) and J.J. Yeley (23) during Sunday’s qualifying. Austin Dillon (3) and David Ragan (34) managed to avoid the melee. Photo by Matt Sullivan/Getty Images
With a little more than a minute to go in the opening session, those fears were realized when Reed Sorenson and Clint Bowyer tangled on the track, collecting Bobby Labonte and Denny Hamlin.
Both Bowyer and Sorenson’s cars were destroyed. Bowyer will have to go to a back up car for Thursday’s qualifying race, but Sorenson’s team had only one car, so their Daytona 500 effort is over before it began.
Afterward, Bowyer voiced his frustration over the qualifying format.
“It’s just idiotic to be out here doing this anyway,” said Bowyer. “There is no sense in being able to try and put on some cute show for whatever the hell this is, then you’ve got a guy out there in desperation doing crap like this. There’s no reason to be out here. These guys have been working for six months, busting their ass on these cars, to go out there have some guy out of desperation pull this crap.
“We used to come down here and worry about who was going to sit on the front row and pole for the biggest race of the year. Now all we do is worry about how a start-and-park like this out of desperation is going to knock us out of the Daytona 500. We’ve been in meetings for 45 minutes just to figure out what the hell everybody’s going to do just to make the race. It’s stupid. There’s no sense in doing this.”
Sorenson, for his part, took the blame for the incident, but said he did what he had to do to have a shot at making the race.
“We took that risk. And now, looking back on it, I don’t know (if it was worth the risk) because maybe the same thing would have happened in the Duels,” said Sorenson. “So, this was one of our two chances to get in the race and we were trying to do everything we could to do that.”
Ryan Newman was also among many drivers trying to make sense of the new format, and questioned NASCAR’s decision to use it for the Daytona 500.
“The frustrating part is dealing with this whole system which makes no sense whatsoever,” said Newman, who qualified 28th. “It’s hard to stand behind NASCAR when everybody I talk to up and down pit road doesn’t understand why we’re doing this.
“Maybe I need to be sat down and educated a little bit.”
Others, like Kurt Busch, who qualified 30th, shrugged their shoulders and soldiered on, but agreed that something needs to change.
“We’re a lot of smart people here. There’s drivers, owners, NASCAR. We got to find a better system,” said Busch. “So much hard work goes into these cars, then you have this roulette wheel for qualifying. It doesn’t seem the proper system. But, hey, it is what it is.”
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series
Daytona International Speedway – Daytona Beach, FL
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1. (24) Jeff Gordon – 201.293 mph
2. (48) Jimmie Johnson – 201.135 mph
Only the two fastest qualifiers from Round 3 are locked into Sunday’s Daytona 500. The rest of the field will be set in Thursday night’s twin Budweiser Duels qualifying races.
(11) Denny Hamlin – 200.933 mph
(20) Matt Kenseth – 200.214
(18) Kyle Busch – 200.187
(5) Kasey Kahne – 199.867
(27) Paul Menard – 198.325
(7) Alex Bowman – 198.229
(83) Johnny Sauter – 198.22
(47) AJ Allmendinger – 198.212
(31) Ryan Newman – 198.177
(4) Kevin Harvick – 197.994
(41) Kurt Busch – 197.976
(14) Tony Stewart – 197.968
(10) Danica Patrick – 197.959
(13) Casey Mears – 197.946
(19) Carl Edwards – 197.837
(62) Brian Scott – 197.828
(33) Ty Dillon – 197.507
(16) Greg Biffle – 197.477
(6) Trevor Bayne – 197.256
(9) Sam Hornish, Jr. – 197.243
(43) Aric Almirola – 197.2
(3) Austin Dillon – 196.962
(17) Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. – 196.816
(46) Michael Annett – 196.554
(51) Justin Allgaier – 196.532
(42) Kyle Larson – 195.588
(38) David Gilliland – 195.346
(95) Michael McDowell – 195.3
(88) Dale Earnhardt, Jr. – 195.08
(26) Jeb Burton – 195.004
(15) Clint Bowyer – 194.995
(44) Reed Sorenson – 194.978
(29) Justin Marks – 194.675
(34) David Ragan – 194.452
(35) Cole Whitt – 194.012
(98) Josh Wise – 193.386
(2) Brad Keselowski – 193.357
(40) Landon Cassill – 193.299
(21) Ryan Blaney – 193.282
(22) Joey Logano – 193.241
(1) Jamie McMurray – 193.133
(66) Mike Wallace – 192.509
(30) Ron Hornaday Jr. – 190.791
(78) Martin Truex Jr. – 190.678
(55) Michael Waltrip – 190.517
(32) Bobby Labonte
(23) J.J. Yeley
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