Stenhouse Beats Out Earnhardt for the Talladega Cup Pole

Photo Credit - Brian Lowdermilk/Getty Images

TALLADEGA, AL – RIS – Ricky Stenhouse proved how much Roush Fenway Racing had improved its game by winning the pole for Sunday’s GEICO 500 at Talladega Super Speedway. Stenhouse will guide the field at Sunday's Geico 500 after pushing his way through Talladega Speedway at an average speed of 191.547 mph. It's his second career pole and his first at Talladega. He previously sat on the pole at Atlanta in 2013.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. qualified second at an average speed of 190.780 mph. His 50.194-second time was a full 0.201 behind Stenhouse, who had by far the quickest car on the track all day.

"It will be nice to lead the field to the green here," Stenhouse said. "It's a cool way to start the weekend."

Earnhardt, who announced his retirement at the end of the 2017 season on April 25, has won six times at Talladega. Stenhouse was the last car to qualify, and the fans in Alabama were hoping Earnhardt would start on the pole for the first time at Talladega.

"I'm pretty happy," Earnhardt said. "Great lap by Stenhouse and the Roush crew. Would have liked that pole."

Brad Keselowski, Matt Kenseth and Trevor Bayne round out the top five. Bayne’s No. 6 Ford is also from the Roush Fenway stable.

Stenhouse is coming off consecutive top-10 finishes. His fourth-place finish at Richmond tied a season's best, and he's finished no worse than 14th since the end of March. Currently sitting 16th in points, Stenhouse has a decent shot at making the Chase field.

"We plan to keep getting better and continue to bring better race cars to the track and go out there and lay it all on the line like we do every week," Stenhouse said, per NASCAR.com. "It's been really fun to drive, real special."

Starting Line Up by Row: 48th Annual GEICO 500, Talladega Superspeedway

Pos, Driver, Car, Speed, Time
1) Ricky Stenhouse Jr., No. 17 Fifth Third Bank Ford, 191.547 mph, 49.993 sec
2) Dale Earnhardt Jr., No. 88 Nationwide Chevrolet, 190.780, 50.194
3) Brad Keselowski, No. 2 Fitzgerald Glider Kits Ford, 190.427, 50.287
4) Matt Kenseth, No. 20 Circle K Toyota, 190.177, 50.353
5) Trevor Bayne, No. 6 AdvoCare Ford, 190.155, 50.359
6) Kevin Harvick, No. 4 Jimmy John's Ford, 190.023, 50.394
7) Daniel Suarez #, No. 19 ARRIS Toyota, 190.011, 50.397
8) Chase Elliott, No. 24 Hooters Chevrolet, 189.921, 50.421
9) Paul Menard, No. 27 Valvoline/Menards Chevrolet, 189.643, 50.495
10) Kyle Busch, No. 18 Skittles Red White & Blue Toyota, 189.582, 50.511
11) Denny Hamlin, No. 11 FedEx Express Toyota, 189.470, 50.541
12) Joey Logano, No. 22 Shell Pennzoil Ford, 189.077, 50.646
13) Martin Truex Jr., No. 78 Bass Pro Shops/Tracker Boats Toyota, 189.350, 50.573
14) Erik Jones #, No. 77 ToyotaCare Toyota, 189.313, 50.583
15) Kurt Busch, No. 41 Haas Automation/Monster Energy Ford, 189.286, 50.590
16) Ryan Blaney, No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Tire & Auto Center Ford, 189.256, 50.598
17) Clint Bowyer, No. 14 Haas Automation Demo Days Ford, 189.036, 50.657
18) Austin Dillon, No. 3 Dow Intellifresh Chevrolet, 189.036, 50.657
19) Kasey Kahne, No. 5 UniFirst Chevrolet, 189.021, 50.661
20) Ryan Newman, No. 31 Caterpillar Chevrolet, 188.961, 50.677
21) Kyle Larson, No. 42 Share an Ice Cold Coke Chevrolet, 188.448, 50.815
22) Aric Almirola, No. 43 Fresh From Florida Ford, 188.345, 50.843
23) Jamie McMurray, No. 1 McDonald's $1 Any Size Soft Drink Chevrolet, 188.219, 50.877
24) Michael McDowell, No. 95 Winn-Dixie Chevrolet, 187.901, 50.963
25) Landon Cassill, No. 34 Love's Travel Stops Ford, 187.883, 50.968
26) Matt DiBenedetto, No. 32 EJ Wade Foundation Ford, 187.794, 50.992
27) AJ Allmendinger, No. 47 Kroger ClickList Chevrolet, 187.776, 50.997
28) Ty Dillon #, No. 13 GEICO Chevrolet, 187.416, 51.095
29) David Ragan, No. 38 Camping World/Good Sam Ford, 187.405, 51.098
30) Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Lowe's Chevrolet, 187.361, 51.110
31) Danica Patrick, No. 10 Aspen Dental Ford, 186.995, 51.210
32) Brendan Gaughan(i), No. 75 Beard Oil Distributing Chevrolet, 186.155, 51.441
33) Reed Sorenson, No. 55 Xchange of America Toyota, 186.119, 51.451
34) Chris Buescher, No. 37 Velveeta Chevrolet, 186.047, 51.471
35) Elliott Sadler(i), No. 7 Golden Corral Chevrolet, 185.895, 51.513
36) Corey LaJoie #, No. 83 Dustless Blasting Toyota, 185.144, 51.722
37) Gray Gaulding #, No. 23 SunFrog.com Toyota, 184.172, 51.995
38) Cole Whitt, No. 72 RTIC Coolers Chevrolet, 183.807, 52.098
39) Joey Gase(i), No. 15 Sparks Energy Chevrolet, 183.353, 52.227
40) Jeffrey Earnhardt, No. 33 Chevrolet, 182.699, 52.414

(i) Ineligible for driver points in this series; (#) Rookie; (*) non-charter team
Did Not Qualify: No. 96 DJ Kennington.

Ron Fleshman with John Davison

RIS NASCAR Editor.  Has been with RIS since the middle 90's. Writes on each of the three main series of NASCAR.

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Volume 2017, Issue 5, Posted 11:28 PM, 05.06.2017