But after that first run I knew the boys did what they do.
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Jeff Gordon led a Hendrick Motorsports rout in qualifying Saturday to win the pole for his final race at Talladega Superspeedway.
“Yeah, it’s real intense”, Earnhardt said. “And then I’ve gotten to where I just think about it and it’s not life-threatening”.
Hendrick driver Jimmie Johnson was third fastest. “It’s a great day for Hendrick Motorsports”.
In front of Kenseth and Earnhardt, the Chase standings are jumbled. We have too much of a job at hand here. “Just the Chase format itself is what heightens the intensity of each race, especially this one”.
The Talladega 500 race begins shortly after 2 p.m. proceeding the National Anthem performed by the 313th United States Army band. “That would guarantee us in”.
“Obviously, you want more speed, but we can’t complain”, said Blaney. Will there be any cars not torn to smithereens at the end of the day? [But] we’ll start towards the front and be okay. Qualifying here isn’t really a huge deal, but definitely having the track position by the end of the race will be important. “I think we’ve been good here year over year with the Miller Lite Ford”. From the drop of the green flag to the time the checkered flag flies, trouble lurks around every corner. “Certainly with this being a race in the Chase, everybody’s kind of on a different agenda”. Kurt and Kyle Busch, along with Ryan Newman and Carl Edwards missed the cut.
“We gave it all we had with the Haas Automation Chevrolet”, said Kurt Busch. “If not, it’s going to be a bit more hard task to get that lead”. The field of drivers still alive for the championship will be pared from 12 down to eight after Sunday’s race, based on points from this three-week set.
“I’ve qualified on one speedway pole in my career and that’s a lot of speedway races”, he pointed out.
The NASCAR gods have deemed Talladega a Chase cutoff race, maximizing the high anxiety. Both drivers are six-time winners at Talladega, and Earnhardt won the spring race there.
Martin Truex’s qualifying run Saturday at Talladega Superspeedway was disallowed by NASCAR for driving below the yellow line on the frontstretch of the 2.66-mile oval. “I don’t know if you need to put any added risk out there to do more than one”.
We’ll find out in a few hours.
“It gets me excited about going up into the 1/8TV3/8 booth next year and talking about all the things that are going on from the driver’s perspective”, he said.
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Kenseth said there are any number of things that will affect the outcome of the race and he views it as a giant chess game where a move early in the race can make a difference late in the race.
