Almirola Wins the Pole Position at Atlanta

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HAMPTON, GA – RIS – Aric Almirola paced the third round of qualifying to win the pole position for Sunday’s Fold of HonorQuik Trip 500 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Race at Atlanta Motor Speedway.  Teammate Clint Bowyer won the first two rounds, but Almirola paced the final round for the pole.

“In that final round, we knew that a second lap was going to be faster than the first,” Almirola said. “That first lap, we kind of decided to throw that lap away and work on building the speed up. That second lap just really executed and hit all my marks perfectly and was able to be good enough and had a really fast lap to get the pole which is really cool because I haven’t done it in like seven years. That was pretty neat.”

Almirola last won a first starting position in 2012 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

The Cup cars will be running a new rules package at AMS which will be interesting to watch.

“I think that with this new package, there is going to be a lot of risk versus reward with building speed into your car because then you sacrifice handling,” Almirola said. “It is going to be really hard and a very tall task to trim your car out and have speed and still have it driving good. If you make your car drive good it probably won’t handle very good. If you make it handle good it probably won’t be very fast. That is the challenge that the teams and engineers and drivers are faced with this package.”

Ricky Stenhouse Jr. qualified second for his second top-10 start of 2019 and his fifth in seven races at Atlanta.

“We made some big improvements the first run,” Stenhouse Jr. said. “We were 18th but our engineers really made a lot of adjustments to get us to where we needed to be so that I could hold the car wide open because the first run I couldn’t.”

Bowyer, who also topped the first practice session, wound up third (180.410 mph).

Last week’s Daytona 500 winner Denny Hamlin was fourth with SHR’s Daniel Suarez rounding out the top five.

Kyle Busch, Kyle Larson, Kurt Busch, Martin Truex Jr., Austin Dillon, Jimmie Johnson and Michael McDowell completed the top 12.

Defending race winner Kevin Harvick battled steering issues all day and qualified 18th.

“Today has been a complete waste of time for us,” Harvick said. “It has been a bit of a challenge today. We haven’t really made any laps that you can actually turn the car. We were kind of just hoping for the best there and it didn’t fix any of it.”

Ryan Preece (25th) was the fastest qualifying rookie.

Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney and Joey Logano failed to make it past the first round, qualifying 26th and 27th, respectively.

“I just got loose the first lap behind the 10 trying to find the right distance behind the car I wanted to be,” Logano said. “I don’t know if I was the right distance or the handling was just off. We tightened it up the second time but it didn’t give us any speed. We will start in the back and work our way up.”

In the top 10, Ford Mustangs qualified in the first three positions and in fifth place.  Chevrolet Camaros and Toyota Camrys had three each.

Time Trial Results: 60th Annual Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500

Atlanta Motor Speedway

Track Qualifying Record: Geoff Bodine; 11/16/97; 28.074 sec; 197.478 mph

Qualifying Round: 1
Pos, Driver, Car, Time, Speed, Lap #, # Laps, -Fastest, -Next
1) Clint Bowyer, No. 14 Haas Automation Ford, 30.675 sec, 180.733 mph, 1, 1, 0.000, 0.000
2) Aric Almirola, No. 10 Smithfield Ford, 30.838, 179.778, 1, 1, 0.163, 0.163
3) Ryan Newman, No. 6 Acorns Ford, 30.845, 179.737, 1, 1, 0.170, 0.007
4) Kyle Larson, No. 42 McDonald's Chevrolet, 30.878, 179.545, 2, 2, 0.203, 0.033
5) Austin Dillon, No. 3 Dow Chevrolet, 30.886, 179.499, 1, 1, 0.211, 0.008
6) Erik Jones, No. 20 DeWalt Toyota, 30.903, 179.400, 3, 3, 0.228, 0.017
7) Kurt Busch, No. 1 ComSurv Chevrolet, 30.918, 179.313, 1, 1, 0.243, 0.015
8) Denny Hamlin, No. 11 FedEx Ground Toyota, 30.929, 179.249, 1, 1, 0.254, 0.011
9) Michael McDowell, No. 34 FR8 Auctions Ford, 30.930, 179.243, 1, 1, 0.255, 0.001
10) Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Ally Chevrolet, 30.947, 179.145, 1, 1, 0.272, 0.017
11) Kyle Busch, No. 18 Snickers Creamy Toyota, 30.956, 179.093, 1, 1, 0.281, 0.009
12) William Byron, No. 24 Liberty University Chevrolet, 30.958, 179.081, 2, 2, 0.283, 0.002
13) Corey LaJoie, No. 32 Old Spice Ford, 30.969, 179.018, 2, 2, 0.294, 0.011
14) Daniel Suarez, No. 41 ARRIS Ford, 30.978, 178.966, 1, 1, 0.303, 0.009
15) Kevin Harvick, No. 4 Busch Beer Ford, 31.000, 178.839, 1, 1, 0.325, 0.022
16) Alex Bowman, No. 88 Axalta Chevrolet, 31.010, 178.781, 1, 1, 0.335, 0.010
17) Martin Truex Jr., No. 19 Bass Pro Shops Toyota, 31.018, 178.735, 1, 1, 0.343, 0.008
18) Ricky Stenhouse Jr., No. 17 Little Hug Ford, 31.024, 178.700, 1, 1, 0.349, 0.006
19) Ty Dillon, No. 13 GEICO Chevrolet, 31.031, 178.660, 1, 1, 0.356, 0.007
20) Brad Keselowski, No. 2 Autotrader Ford, 31.047, 178.568, 1, 1, 0.372, 0.016
21) Paul Menard, No. 21 Menards/Moen Ford, 31.072, 178.424, 1, 1, 0.397, 0.025
22) Matt DiBenedetto, No. 95 Procore Toyota, 31.073, 178.419, 3, 3, 0.398, 0.001
23) Chase Elliott, No. 9 NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet, 31.079, 178.384, 1, 1, 0.404, 0.006
24) David Ragan, No. 38 FireAde Ford, 31.095, 178.292, 1, 1, 0.420, 0.016
25) Ryan Preece #, No. 47 Kroger Chevrolet, 31.097, 178.281, 4, 4, 0.422, 0.002
26) Ryan Blaney, No. 12 PPG Ford, 31.119, 178.155, 1, 1, 0.444, 0.022
27) Joey Logano, No. 22 Shell Pennzoil Ford, 31.145, 178.006, 1, 3, 0.470, 0.026
28) Daniel Hemric #, No. 8 Red Kap/Alsco Chevrolet, 31.156, 177.943, 3, 3, 0.481, 0.011
29) Bubba Wallace, No. 43 McDonald's Chevrolet, 31.196, 177.715, 2, 2, 0.521, 0.040
30) Chris Buescher, No. 37 Scott Comfort Plus Chevrolet, 31.323, 176.995, 1, 3, 0.648, 0.127
31) Matt Tifft #, No. 36 Surface Sunscreen/Tunity Ford, 31.376, 176.696, 1, 1, 0.701, 0.053
32) Ross Chastain(i), No. 15 Rim Riderz Chevrolet, 31.502, 175.989, 1, 1, 0.827, 0.126
33) Landon Cassill, No. 00 StarCom Fiber Chevrolet, 31.512, 175.933, 2, 2, 0.837, 0.010
34) Parker Kligerman*(i), No. 96 Gaunt Brothers Racing Toyota, 31.534, 175.810, 3, 3, 0.859, 0.022
35) Garrett Smithley(i), No. 77 Overkill Motorsports Chevrolet, 32.598, 170.072, 1, 1, 1.923, 1.064
36) Cody Ware #, No. 51 Jacob Companies Ford, 32.950, 168.255, 1, 2, 2.275, 0.352
37) BJ McLeod(i), No. 52 Trick Shot Chevrolet, 0.000, 0.000, 0, 0, -----, -----
*Required to qualify on time, OP - Top 30 in Owner Points, PC - Past Champion,
(i)Ineligible for driver points in this series

Qualifying Round: 2
Pos, Driver, Car, Time, Speed, Lap #, # Laps, -Fastest, -Next
1) Clint Bowyer, No. 14 Haas Automation Ford, 30.714 sec, 180.504 mph, 1, 1, 0.000, 0.000
2) Daniel Suarez, No. 41 ARRIS Ford, 30.746, 180.316, 2, 2, 0.032, 0.032
3) Aric Almirola, No. 10 Smithfield Ford, 30.772, 180.164, 1, 1, 0.058, 0.026
4) Michael McDowell, No. 34 FR8 Auctions Ford, 30.803, 179.982, 2, 2, 0.089, 0.031
5) Kyle Larson, No. 42 McDonald's Chevrolet, 30.812, 179.930, 2, 2, 0.098, 0.009
6) Ricky Stenhouse Jr., No. 17 Little Hug Ford, 30.827, 179.842, 2, 2, 0.113, 0.015
7) Kurt Busch, No. 1 ComSurv Chevrolet, 30.832, 179.813, 2, 2, 0.118, 0.005
8) Denny Hamlin, No. 11 FedEx Ground Toyota, 30.837, 179.784, 2, 2, 0.123, 0.005
9) Kyle Busch, No. 18 Snickers Creamy Toyota, 30.845, 179.737, 2, 2, 0.131, 0.008
10) Austin Dillon, No. 3 Dow Chevrolet, 30.845, 179.737, 1, 1, 0.131, 0.000
11) Martin Truex Jr., No. 19 Bass Pro Shops Toyota, 30.877, 179.551, 2, 2, 0.163, 0.032
12) Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Ally Chevrolet, 30.882, 179.522, 3, 3, 0.168, 0.005
13) Ryan Newman, No. 6 Acorns Ford, 30.906, 179.383, 1, 3, 0.192, 0.024
14) Paul Menard, No. 21 Menards/Moen Ford, 30.908, 179.371, 2, 5, 0.194, 0.002
15) Erik Jones, No. 20 DeWalt Toyota, 30.929, 179.249, 2, 2, 0.215, 0.021
16) Alex Bowman, No. 88 Axalta Chevrolet, 30.952, 179.116, 2, 4, 0.238, 0.023
17) William Byron, No. 24 Liberty University Chevrolet, 30.979, 178.960, 2, 4, 0.265, 0.027
18) Kevin Harvick, No. 4 Busch Beer Ford, 30.991, 178.891, 1, 1, 0.277, 0.012
19) Brad Keselowski, No. 2 Autotrader Ford, 30.998, 178.850, 2, 4, 0.284, 0.007
20) Matt DiBenedetto, No. 95 Procore Toyota, 31.029, 178.672, 2, 2, 0.315, 0.031
21) Ty Dillon, No. 13 GEICO Chevrolet, 31.048, 178.562, 1, 3, 0.334, 0.019
22) Chase Elliott, No. 9 NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet, 31.061, 178.487, 2, 4, 0.347, 0.013
23) David Ragan, No. 38 FireAde Ford, 31.111, 178.201, 3, 3, 0.397, 0.050
24) Corey LaJoie, No. 32 Old Spice Ford, 31.148, 177.989, 1, 1, 0.434, 0.037
*Required to qualify on time, OP - Top 30 in Owner Points, PC - Past Champion,
(i)Ineligible for driver points in this series, (#) Rookie

Qualifying Round: 3
Pos, Driver, Car, Time, Speed, Lap #, # Laps, -Fastest, -Next
1) Aric Almirola, No. 10 Smithfield Ford, 30.550, 181.473, 2, 2, 0.000, 0.000
2) Ricky Stenhouse Jr., No. 17 Little Hug Ford, 30.727, 180.428, 2, 2, 0.177, 0.177
3) Clint Bowyer, No. 14 Haas Automation Ford, 30.730, 180.410, 1, 2, 0.180, 0.003
4) Denny Hamlin, No. 11 FedEx Ground Toyota, 30.744, 180.328, 2, 2, 0.194, 0.014
5) Daniel Suarez, No. 41 ARRIS Ford, 30.763, 180.216, 2, 2, 0.213, 0.019
6) Kyle Busch, No. 18 Snickers Creamy Toyota, 30.810, 179.942, 2, 2, 0.260, 0.047
7) Kyle Larson, No. 42 McDonald's Chevrolet, 30.827, 179.842, 2, 2, 0.277, 0.017
8) Kurt Busch, No. 1 ComSurv Chevrolet, 30.835, 179.796, 2, 2, 0.285, 0.008
9) Martin Truex Jr., No. 19 Bass Pro Shops Toyota, 30.852, 179.697, 2, 2, 0.302, 0.017
10) Austin Dillon, No. 3 Dow Chevrolet, 30.869, 179.598, 2, 2, 0.319, 0.017
11) Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Ally Chevrolet, 30.900, 179.417, 1, 2, 0.350, 0.031
12) Michael McDowell, No. 34 FR8 Auctions Ford, 30.915, 179.330, 2, 2, 0.365, 0.015

Starting Lineup: 60th Annual Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500, Atlanta Motor Speedway
Pos, Driver, Car, Time, Speed
1) Aric Almirola, No. 10 Smithfield Ford, 30.550 sec, 181.473 mph
2) Ricky Stenhouse Jr., No. 17 Little Hug Ford, 30.727, 180.428
3) Clint Bowyer, No. 14 Haas Automation Ford, 30.730, 180.410
4) Denny Hamlin, No. 11 FedEx Ground Toyota, 30.744, 180.328
5) Daniel Suarez, No. 41 ARRIS Ford, 30.763, 180.216
6) Kyle Busch, No. 18 Snickers Creamy Toyota, 30.810, 179.942
7) Kyle Larson, No. 42 McDonald's Chevrolet, 30.827, 179.842
8) Kurt Busch, No. 1 ComSurv Chevrolet, 30.835, 179.796
9) Martin Truex Jr., No. 19 Bass Pro Shops Toyota, 30.852, 179.697
10) Austin Dillon, No. 3 Dow Chevrolet, 30.869, 179.598
11) Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Ally Chevrolet, 30.900, 179.417
12) Michael McDowell, No. 34 FR8 Auctions Ford, 30.915, 179.330
13) Ryan Newman, No. 6 Acorns Ford, 30.906, 179.383
14) Paul Menard, No. 21 Menards/Moen Ford, 30.908, 179.371
15) Erik Jones, No. 20 DeWalt Toyota, 30.929, 179.249
16) Alex Bowman, No. 88 Axalta Chevrolet, 30.952, 179.116
17) William Byron, No. 24 Liberty University Chevrolet, 30.979, 178.960
18) Kevin Harvick, No. 4 Busch Beer Ford, 30.991, 178.891
19) Brad Keselowski, No. 2 Autotrader Ford, 30.998, 178.850
20) Matt DiBenedetto, No. 95 Procore Toyota, 31.029, 178.672
21) Ty Dillon, No. 13 GEICO Chevrolet, 31.048, 178.562
22) Chase Elliott, No. 9 NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet, 31.061, 178.487
23) David Ragan, No. 38 FireAde Ford, 31.111, 178.201
24) Corey LaJoie, No. 32 Old Spice Ford, 31.148, 177.989
25) Ryan Preece #, No. 47 Kroger Chevrolet, 31.097, 178.281
26) Ryan Blaney, No. 12 PPG Ford, 31.119, 178.155
27) Joey Logano, No. 22 Shell Pennzoil Ford, 31.145, 178.006
28) Daniel Hemric #, No. 8 Red Kap/Alsco Chevrolet, 31.156, 177.943
29) Bubba Wallace, No. 43 McDonald's Chevrolet, 31.196, 177.715
30) Chris Buescher, No. 37 Scott Comfort Plus Chevrolet, 31.323, 176.995
31) Matt Tifft #, No. 36 Surface Sunscreen/Tunity Ford, 31.376, 176.696
32) Ross Chastain(i), No. 15 Rim Riderz Chevrolet, 31.502, 175.989
33) Landon Cassill, No. 00 StarCom Fiber Chevrolet, 31.512, 175.933
34) Parker Kligerman(i), No. 96 Gaunt Brothers Racing Toyota, 31.534, 175.810
35) Garrett Smithley(i), No. 77 Overkill Motorsports Chevrolet, 32.598, 170.072
36) Cody Ware #, No. 51 Jacob Companies Ford, 32.950, 168.255
37) BJ McLeod(i), No. 52 Trick Shot Chevrolet, 0.000, 0.000 
(i) Ineligible for driver points in this series, (#) Rookie

ARIC ALMIROLA, No. 10 Smithfield Ford Mustang -- Qualified 1st

 

HOW DID YOU MANAGE TO POST A 30:55 IN THE THIRD ROUND AFTER TWO LAPS ON TIRES? “Sneaky. You know, we knew our car had a lot of raw speed in it and through the rounds the adjustments that Johnny was making kept making our car a little bit better. I think we ran an 84 and then we ran a 75 in round two but we were getting it done on lap one. In the first round, there was a little bit of confusion leaving pit road. I feel like that might have costs us a little bit. Then that final round just was really good execution by the whole team. The changes that the engineers and Johnny made to the car. Honestly the car that the guys brought, we were good right off the truck. We were second in practice and we carried that speed through qualifying. In that final round, we knew that a second lap was going to be faster than the first. That first lap, we kind of decided to throw that lap away and work on building the speed up. That second lap just really executed and hit all my marks perfectly and was able to be good enough and had a really fast lap to get the pole which is really cool because I haven’t done it in like seven years. That was pretty neat.”

 

CLINT HASN’T HAD A POLE SINCE 2007 AND NOW YOU GOT HIM: “Good. I’ve finally got something on Clint (laughing)”

 

DID CLINT RIB YOU AT ALL WHEN YOU GOT BACK THERE? DID YOU HAVE A CHANCE TO SAY ANYTHING TO HIM AFTER THE RUN? “No, I haven’t seen him yet but that is one of the great things about our race team. We are going to have a lot more opportunities at these. Everybody at SHR is building incredible race cars. It doesn't matter what rules they throw at us. At the end of the day it is about people. That is one of the things that impresses me the most about our organization. You give 400 really talented employees a challenge with a new race car, with a Ford Mustang, and a new rules package from NASCAR and they just go to work. They put their head down and go to work and figure out how to make everything work to make the cars go fast. That has blown me away in my year and couple months that I have been there with how dedicated those employees are. All 400 employees at making race cars go fast. That is what they wake up every morning to do.”

 

IS THIS LIKE PLATE TRACK QUALIFYING NOW EVERYWHERE WE GO WHERE YOU HAVE TO WIND IT UP TO GET A FAST LAP? “It will be different at different tracks. That is one of the things that is still an unknown. Johnny and I talked a lot about it this week with our engineers and myself sitting down at the shop on Tuesday looking at a lot of different scenarios and things. I  think it will be different from track to track. Every track will be risk reward. It is going to be very dependent on the track we are at and the tire that Goodyear brings. That was one of the things that we were concerned about here at Atlanta, the tire fall off. We knew we couldn’t just keep putting laps on our tires. We needed the tires to be at the best at the end. Even though we knew that lap two was going to be faster.”

 

THERE SEEM TO BE MORE UNKNOWNS NOW THAN KNOWNS WITH THIS PACKAGE. WHAT DO WE NEED TO LOOK FOR? “I think one of the things we are going to look for is the fall off. I think that with this new package, there is going to be a lot of risk versus reward with building speed into your car because then you sacrifice handling. It is going to be really hard and a very tall task to trim your car out and have speed and still have it driving good. If you make your car drive good it probably won’t handle very good. If you make it handle good it probably won’t be very fast. That is the challenge that the teams and engineers and drivers are faced with with this package. Trying to find raw speed without sacrificing handling.”

 

SO SETTING THE CAR UP FOR QUALIFYING WILL BE DRAMATICALLY DIFFERENT THAN THE RACE? “I honestly don't know. I don't get into the details and the weeds with Johnny and the engineers on our team. They sit there and spend 16 hours a day cross eyed looking at their computers trying to figure out how to make our race cars go fast. I just show up and tell them if it is tight or loose or give them my thoughts and opinions on strategic, 10,000 foot view stuff. As far as all the details on the car and what they are going to need to do to make it fast for qualifying versus what we will need to be fast on Sunday will be up to them. I will be the first guy to know if our car is driving good and has speed but as far as the planning and preparation and all that stuff, a lot of that falls into those guys hands and they do a really good job at it.”

 

 

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 2019, Issue 2, Posted 9:41 PM, 02.22.2019