Darlington Qualifying Report
QUALIFYING RESULTS:
1. Clint Bowyer, Chevrolet, 29.806 seconds, 164.987 miles per hour
2. Greg Biffle, Ford, 29.826 seconds, 164.876 miles per hour
3. Jamie McMurray, Ford, 29.907 seconds, 164.430 miles per hour
4. Carl Edwards, Ford, 29.928 seconds, 125.570 miles per hour
5. Kasey Kahne, Dodge, 29.972 seconds, 164.073 miles per hour
13. Bobby Labonte, Dodge, 30.135 seconds, 163.186 miles per hour
49. Kyle Petty, Dodge, 30.822 seconds, 159.548 miles per hour
Bobby Labonte and the #43 Cheerios/Betty Crocker Dodge team continue to turn up the wick when it comes to qualifying. Labonte qualified 13th for tomorrow night’s Dodge Avenger 500 despite going out 15th, when the sun was at its apex. He was still able to better his practice time by .235 secs to give the team its best qualifying effort since Atlanta. While Labonte is very satisfied with the lap, he feels like he may have left a little on the table. .
“That was a great pickup from where we were in practice,” said Labonte. ”We were a little tight in practice so I was not real sure how good it would be. I have to say it drove pretty well. I might have been able to squeeze a little more out of it, but this is Darlington. You take what you get and go line up to race.”
Kyle Petty is sporting the Marathon American Spirit Motor Oil colors on the No. 45 this weekend. He is locked in by virtue of sitting 31st in owner points and will roll of from the 42nd position. While the team is not happy with the results of the day, they are in the show and feel like they have a good car for the race.
“We spent all day getting the thing to drive well,” said Petty. “I think we did that. We were too soft and were bottoming-out really bad early on. We just didn’t have time to work much on qualifying. In race trim it was really comfortable. I am confident we’ll be fine tomorrow.”
Clint Bowyer has stamped his name in the record books. The driver of the No. 07 Chevrolet captured his first career pole at the 1.366-mile Darlington (S.C.) Raceway.
Even as outside temperatures continued to climb toward the 90 degree mark, Bowyer was able to turn in what would easily be the fastest time of the entire day. Greg Biffle will line up along side Bowyer for tomorrow’s event. Biffle himself turned in a fine lap, only two hundredths of a second behind Bowyer.
Friday’s qualifying session was televised live nationally by SPEED Channel and broadcast on MRN Radio. Saturday night’s race will be televised live on FOX and broadcast live on MRN Radio. The race is scheduled to begin at 7:00 p.m. (EST). |