Erik Jones Earns First Cup Series Pole
BRISTOL, Tenn. – Rookie Erik Jones earned the first Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series pole of his career on Friday afternoon at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Jones, wheeling the No. 77 5-hour Energy Toyota for Furniture Row Racing, secured the pole with a 14.981-second lap at 128.082 mph on Bristol’s half-mile oval. It is Jones’ first Cup Series pole in his 27th series start.
The pole comes at an opportune time for Jones, who is currently on the outside looking in the battle to make the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs. A victory during Saturday’s Bass Pro Shops NRA Night Race would catapult Jones, who finished a career-best third last weekend at Michigan Int’l Speedway, into the playoffs.
“It’s cool anytime you get your first pole in a series, but to do it at Bristol, that’s pretty cool. I’m just excited. We’ve got a really good 5-hour Energy Camry. We had a good week last week and we’ve done a good job to keep the momentum going so far,” Jones said.
“Here at Bristol track position is huge, pit stops are huge. We’ve got a good pit stall, we’ve got a good starting spot. We’ve done those two things.”
Kyle Larson, coming off his third victory of the season last weekend at Michigan, qualified second by utilizing a different line than the rest of the field during the final round of qualifying. While everyone else was running the bottom line, which has been coated with PJ1 TrackBite to create more grip, Larson opted to instead run the top.
The decision nearly paid off as Larson circled the track in 14.984 seconds to come up just .003 of a second short of the pole.
“I kinda wanted to outsmart them there for that final round and beat the up top when they were all stuck on the bottom,” Larson said. “Wish I could have gone just a couple thousands faster. Ended up second, so not bad. Really wanted that pole there just because I was doing something different than everybody.”
Brickyard 400 winner Kasey Kahne qualified third, his best qualifying effort of the season. He’ll be joined on row two by his teammate Chase Elliott. The Toyota pairing of Martin Truex Jr. and Denny Hamlin make up row three, followed by Denny Hamlin, Joey Logano, Clint Bowyer, Ryan Blaney, Jamie McMurray and Daniel Suarez.
Kyle Busch had the fastest time of the day during the opening round of qualifying, setting the early pace with a 14.769-second lap at 129.921 mph. Hamlin was second, followed by Elliott, McMurray and Truex.
Hamlin then paced the second round of qualifying thanks to a 14.940-second lap at 128.632 mph. Kenseth was second, followed by Jones, Logano and Suarez. Busch struggled during the second round of qualifying, settling for 18th after leading the first round.
Dale Earnhardt Jr., making his final Cup Series start at Bristol, qualified 31st.
Timmy Hill was the lone driver who failed to qualify for the 40-car field.
Source :speedsport.com
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