Johnson earns Bristol pole
Jimmie Johnson crossed winning at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway off his to-do list in March. Now he’ll try to make it two in a row by starting from the pole in tonight’s race.
The four-time defending NASCAR champion turned a lap at 123.475 mph in Friday’s qualifying to put his Chevrolet on the front row.
“Everybody wants to win here,” Johnson said. “We all know how hard I fought this track myself, my own demons, whatever it is that we finally got over in the spring to win here. I would love to go out and win again.”
Johnson bettered Carl Edwards, who earned the second starting spot with a lap at 122.937 in a Ford. His hold on the pole was for just a few minutes – Johnson ran his lap two cars after Edwards’ attempt.
“I was on it for 15.54 seconds or however long it took Jimmie to run that thing,” Edwards said.
Joey Logano qualified third in a Toyota, and also had a brief time atop the speed chart before Edwards and then Johnson knocked him into the second row.
Tony Stewart qualified fourth and David Reutimann bounced back from a bout with food poisoning to qualify fifth.
Kyle Busch has moved one step closer to sweeping the weekend at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Busch won the Nationwide Series race Friday night to give him two wins in two races at Bristol. He won the Truck Series race this week, and will try to win the Sprint Cup Series race tonight.
Busch had a lengthy battle with Brad Keselowski for the lead, and passed the Nationwide series points leader with 31 laps to go. But contact after the pass caused Busch to slide back to second.
He immediately caught Keselowski, tapped him back, and caused Keselowski to wreck. Keselowski finished 14th.
Patrick expected to make NASCAR return
JR Motorsports expects to field a Nationwide Series car next season for Danica Patrick.
JRM co-owner Kelley Earnhardt said she’s waiting for the IndyCar schedule to be released to determine how many races Patrick will drive in NASCAR. She’s running a 13-race schedule this year for JRM that is built around her IndyCar commitments.
Patrick has a career-best finish of 24th at Chicago last month through her six races so far. Her average finish is 30.5.
Carl Edwards said he has committed to racing the full Nationwide Series schedule next season.
Edwards said he will drive the full season in NASCAR’s second-tier series even if he’s not eligible to race for the Nationwide championship.
NASCAR is currently discussing rule changes to the Nationwide Series to develop its brand. One of the proposals is making full-time Sprint Cup drivers ineligible for the title.
Edwards is in his sixth season running a full Nationwide schedule. He won the championship in 2007 and is second in the standings behind Keselowski. Like Edwards, he’s also a full-time Sprint Cup Series driver.