(By Sarah Farlee Managing Editor, CupScene.com)
Posted: Friday,May 27th, 2011
Concord, N.C. – Brad Keselowski will bring the field to green for Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway – it is the second career pole for the Penske Racing driver.
Keselowski’s speed of 192.089 mph was fast enough to win the top spot during Thursday night qualifying.
“The 600 itself is such a big race in NASCAR, it’s a race full of history and tradition and it’s very special to add my name to the list of those who have won the pole,” said Keselowski.
Keselowski says success overall, and not just the pole, is about details and execution.
“We’ve got a few steps to go, and this is one of them,” Keselowski said.
Brad Keselowski celebrates his Coors Light Pole Award for the Coca-Cola 600, his second career pole in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. (Getty Images)
Keselowski’s performance has been improved minus stalling on the last pit stop in Dover and a brake problem during the All-Star Shootout.
“It’s not just the team execution, it’s myself,” added Keselowski. “We all just have to execute a little bit better.”
“As a group my road crew and the guys that do setups on the car have learned a lot in the last few weeks,” Keselowski said.
AJ Allmendinger was second fastest of the night (191.693 mph) and Carl Edwards qualified third (191.686 mph).
“There wasn’t much more that I could have gotten,” said Allmendinger. “I’m proud of the lap and proud of everybody on the team.”
Edwards, coming off the All-Star win last weekend says there will be no victory celebrations – in the grass at least.
“That was pretty stupid,” said Edwards of the victory spin. “In my defense I didn’t know that [tearing up the car] would happen.”
What Edwards did know was how good the car was going into qualifying.
“The car is very good,” Edwards said. “Bob [Osborne] and I were very frustrated with our lap and then we realized it was okay to qualify third considering where we were a year ago.”
Denny Hamlin qualified fourth with a speed of 191.367 mph and Jeff Burton qualified fifth (191.367 mph).
Jimmie Johnson qualified sixth, David Reutimann was seventh, David Ragan was eighth, Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. was ninth and Clint Bowyer qualified 10th.
Other notes from Windstream Pole Night:
Stenhouse, Jr., is filling in for Trevor Bayne who is taking one more week off to recover from an extended illness had to qualify in on time. The effort will make Stenhouse the first driver since Dale Earnhardt, Jr. in 1999 to make their Sprint Cup Series debut in the Coca-Cola 600.
The only incident of the evening was a spin by Andy Lally on the second qualifying lap. Lally was able to keep the car off the wall in impressive fashion. Lally’s one lap was not fast enough to lock into the field.
Other drivers failing to qualify for the Coca-Cola 600 were Tony Raines, Scott Riggs, Scott Wimmer, and TJ Bell.
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