Kahne Wins Second Pocono Pole
Image details: Pocono 500 Qualifying served by picapp.com
For the second time in his Sprint Cup career, Kasey Kahne has turned the quickest qualifying lap at Pocono, thus earning himself the Coors Lite Pole Award. His first pole position at Pocono came back in 2004 when he set the track qualifying record at 172.533 mph. The lap he turned on Friday afternoon was about 2 mph slower and took 52.873 seconds, but it got the job done, nonetheless, and he will start Sunday’s Pocono 500 from the inside of row 1.
Jimmie Johnson was the first driver to qualify for the race and had the pole locked up until Kahne beat him out for the privelege. Johnson’s lap was still good enough to earn him a spot in the front row, though, and he will lineup next to Kahne on the front row of Sunday’s starting grid. The DEI cars of Mark Martin and Regan Smith qualified third and fourth, followed by Joe Nemecheck and Carl Edwards, who will make up row 3 for the start of the race.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. will look to rebound from last week’s misfortunes at Dover, and qualifying 7th is a good start for accomplishing that mission. Starting next to him on the outside of row 4 will be AJ Allmendinger, who has been red hot during qualifying these past few weeks. And, completing the top-ten starters for the race will be Scott Riggs and Kyle Busch, who qualified 9th and 10th.
Qualifying 11th through 13th are three drivers that many are expecting to contend for the win on Sunday, as Kurt Busch, Tony Stewart, and Matt Kenseth will occupy those positions. The heavy favorite to win at Pocono, though, is Denny Hamlin, who qualified 16th. Ryan Newman and Jeff Gordon had perhaps the most disappointing runs on Friday, though, as they qualified 27th and 38th respectively. The number 96 Hall of Fame Racing car driven by JJ Yeley was the only car that failed to qualify for the event.
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3 opinions for Kahne Wins Second Pocono Pole
Ryan Newman's #1
Jun 6, 2008 at 7:02 pm
No surprise there… the kid wants to stay in the chase. Good luck Ryan and Jeff.
Tim Zaegel
Jun 6, 2008 at 9:43 pm
Yeah, I’m not really sure what happened with Newman and Gordon during qualifying.
Adam C
Jun 7, 2008 at 10:35 am
Go Kasey!!!
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