Paulie Harraka, driver of the No. 08 Randy Hill Racing Ford, Timmy Hill, driver of the No. 41 Lilly Trucking CDL Driver Search Ford, and Sam Hornish Jr., driver of the No. 12 Alliance Truck Parts Dodge, are involved in a wreck during the NASCAR Nationwide Series at Richmond International Raceway in Richmond, Virginia, Friday. — AFP
RICHMOND, Virginia – Dale Earnhardt Jr. won the pole for Saturday’s NASCAR “regular-season” finale, bumping his Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jeff Gordon from the top starting spot in Friday’s qualifying.
“I was as surprised as anybody,” said Earnhardt, who won the 11th pole of his career. It’s the first pole for NASCAR’s most popular driver since the 2011 Daytona 500.
It came at the expense of Gordon, who is trying to race his way into the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship. Gordon wound up second, and was pleased with the effort. “Mission accomplished,” he said.
Gordon needs a strong race and a bit of help to earn one of the two wild-card berths in the 12-driver Chase field. Although eight drivers go into the race mathematically eligible for the final two spots in the Chase field, the talk has focused on a battle between Gordon and Kyle Busch for the last slot. Busch qualified 15th.
Earnhardt is already locked into the Chase and is racing only for bonus points Saturday. The Chase field will be re-seeded after the race, with everyone but the two wild-card drivers starting their title hunt with three bonus points per victory. Earnhardt has one win this season.
The top seed will be Denny Hamlin, who has a series-best four wins this season and goes into his home track coming off consecutive victories in the past two weeks. He qualified 11th and has said all week his focus on Saturday will be in helping Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Busch make the Chase.
But Hamlin could be joined by another driver in a tie for the top seed, as five-time champion Jimmie Johnson, Brad Keselowski and defending champion Tony Stewart are all tied with three wins this season. If one of them wins at Richmond, they’ll tie Hamlin with 12 bonus points to open the Chase. — AP
