Well, after the washout in Bristol, the qualifying title headed to NASCAR's smallest track where Jeff Gordon proved, again, that he's rather handy around that place as he picked up his second pole position for the season. Dale Earnhardt Jr couldn't crack into the top 17 so Gordon extended his lead to more than a round (78 points), but as we saw last year, certainly not safe from being caught.
A few surprises in the top 10 with Aric Almirola, Jamie McMurray (after a horrid start to his 2008 campaign) and Ken Schrader all starting from the first five rows while Denny Hamlin continued his march up the pecking order as he lined up next to Gordon on the front row.
Texas saw a role reversal for the Hendrick boys as Dale Jr took the pole while Gordon failed to score any points. David Ragan's strong recent form stayed with him, qualifying seventh behind David Reutimann while Sam Hornish Jr picked up his first point of the year.
So, from Atlanta, no change at the top with Gordon leading Jr in a HMS 1-2 but Kyle Busch does manage to get past Carl Edwards for third. Michael Waltrip drops from outright seventh to equal 13th with Hamlin going the other way to move from equal 13th to outright sixth. Almirola, Ragan and Reutimann push out Casey Mears, Scott Riggs and Reed Sorenson to make up the top 20.
Oh, and I've given full points for qualifying unlike what I'm doing with the races...sort of hard to set a cut-off distance in qualifying.
Tez's NASCAR Qualifying Championship - top 20 standings after 7 rounds:
I shall put up the TNRC for both rounds tomorrow most likely...no pictures this week since both Jeff and Jr have had pikkies this season anyway so I didn't really see the point *shrugs*
its right here folks. the only commentary in the world about texas qualifying with no mention of mike mcdowells wild ride. couldn't he have got points for style?
he might get a mention in my awards ceremony at the end of the year, Will....but since he didn't get pole with a triple pike and level of difficulty of 2.95, he doesn't get any points for the QC :P
Tez is a rare creature; an Australian who was living in New Zealand before moving to Canada. He's also a Civil Engineer who is hoping to spend his Monday to Friday sitting in front of a computer surfing the inter...uh, working hard for an Engineering Consultant or Contractor when he finds a job. His heart is torn between his two loves; F1 and NASCAR.
Due to his high interest in those, his blogs will likely focus on them with the occasional foray into sports that don't get much (if any) mention on this website. All blogs and/or comments will more than likely have his usual dollop of sarcasm and general Aussie spin on them.
Amazingly, he also managed to score 2 MiB nominations on consecutive days (August 5 & 6, 2007) after announcing he had been keeping track of them...he's considering hiding under his bed as a result.
