Scott leads pack, tops it to take Talladega pole

Brian Scott climbs from his car Saturday after winning the pole for today’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Aaron’s 499 at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway.

Brian Scott climbs from his car Saturday after winning the pole for today’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Aaron’s 499 at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway.

Sunday, May 4, 2014

TALLADEGA, Ala. - A group decision for all of the cars powered by Earnhardt Childress engines to work together at Talladega Superspeedway proved the correct call in NASCAR’s new knockout qualifying format.

Richard Childress Racing drivers and their affiliates swept the first three rows on the starting grid for today’s race, with the pole going to Brian Scott, who will lead the field to the green flag in just his fifth career Sprint Cup Series start.

“Who would have thought that, huh?” Scott asked after Saturday’s qualifying session.

Cars with ECR engines took six of the 12 spots in the third and final round of knockout qualifying, and they all waited patiently on pit road for someone to make a move. It came with roughly 2 minutes, 20 seconds remaining in the 5-minute session, when all 12 drivers made their way onto the track.

Tony Stewart posted the fastest lap as he worked with the other three Stewart-Haas Racing drivers, and as the clock neared the final buzzer, it appeared the three-time NASCAR champion had the pole locked up.

Then came the ECR pack of cars, with Ryan Newman leading, Scott somewhere in the middle and Paul Menard bringing up the rear. Team owner Childress had designated Newman as the driver to decide when the pack should go, and Menard was charged with pushing them along.

Just as time expired, the entire group shot past Stewart’s speed and moved to the top of the leaderboard.

It was Scott on the pole, followed by Menard and then AJ Allmendinger, an RCR-affiliated driver.

Casey Mears, also an affiliated driver, qualified fourth and was followed by Daytona 500 pole-sitter Austin Dillon and Newman.

“It was just a great plan by RCR, getting all the RCR alliance cars working together,” Allmendinger said. “We worked on that [in practice] and felt like we all had great speed. Ryan was the guinea pig for all of us and timed it right, and that last session, it was just basically who was going to wait the longest to go out there.”

It was the first time NASCAR has used its new knockout format on a restrictor-plate track in the Sprint Cup Series. Daytona 500 qualifying in February was done with traditional single-car runs.

“The qualifying format, I think there are good tracks for it and bad tracks for it, and this is definitely a great track for it,” Menard said. “We had a plan and we tried to stick to the plan as best we could. Ryan, we put the burden on him to decide when to go and where to go, and the rest of us held it in line. ECR top-six and RCR cars all up there is pretty exciting.”

Now Scott gets to show what he’s made of on one of NASCAR’s fastest tracks. A Nationwide Series regular, he’s got three previous starts this season and finished 25th in the Daytona 500.

“I’ve got that dreaded yellow [rookie] stripe on the bumper, and that’s going to make people run away from me like the plague,” Scott said of finding drafting partners on Sunday.

Stewart wound up 12th in the final session after it appeared he had the pole locked up. SHR put all four of its cars in the final round, and Danica Patrick earned the highest starting spot at seventh.

Joey Logano, meanwhile, failed to advance into the final round of qualifying for the first time this season. He’d made it through all three rounds in eight previous sessions. He qualified 16th.

“It’s not by a good car or not, it’s just by strategy,” Logano said. “We put a lot of work and effort into keeping that streak alive. It’s unfortunate.”

STARTING LINEUP After Saturday qualifying; race today At Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway Lap length: 2.66 miles (Car number in parentheses)

  1. (33) Brian Scott, Chevy, 198.290

  2. (27) Paul Menard, Chevy, 197.888

  3. (47) AJ Allmendinger, Chevy, 197.704

  4. (13) Casey Mears, Chevy, 197.370

  5. (3) Austin Dillon, Chevy, 197.362

  6. (31) Ryan Newman, Chevy, 197.297

  7. (10) Danica Patrick, Chevy, 194.995

  8. (4) Kevin Harvick, Chevy, 194.393

  9. (41) Kurt Busch, Chevy, 193.619

  10. (99) Carl Edwards, Ford, 193.615

  11. (24) Jeff Gordon, Chevy, 193.486

  12. (14) Tony Stewart, Chevy, 188.958

  13. (2) Brad Keselowski, Ford, 194.963

  14. (95) Michael McDowell, Ford, 194.959

  15. (43) Aric Almirola, Ford, 194.911

  16. (22) Joey Logano, Ford, 194.880

  17. (7) Michael Annett, Chevy, 194.098

  18. (55) Brian Vickers, Toyota, 194.035

  19. (18) Kyle Busch, Toyota, 193.541

  20. (48) Jimmie Johnson, Chevy, 193.478

  21. (20) Matt Kenseth, Toyota, 193.458

  22. (36) Reed Sorenson, Chevy, 190.890

  23. (21) Trevor Bayne, Ford, 190.575

  24. (83) Ryan Truex, Toyota, 197.913

  25. (17) Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Ford, 197.908

  26. (9) Marcos Ambrose, Ford, 197.835

  27. (15) Clint Bowyer, Toyota, 197.806

  28. (66) Michael Waltrip, Toyota, 197.806

  29. (42) Kyle Larson, Chevy, 197.770

  30. (88) Dale Earnhardt Jr., Chevy, 197.765

  31. (26) Cole Whitt, Toyota, 197.721

  32. (1) Jamie McMurray, Chevy, 197.443

  33. (23) Alex Bowman, Toyota, 197.403

  34. (11) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 197.378

  35. (16) Greg Biffle, Ford, 197.244

  36. (98) Josh Wise, Ford, 197.029

  37. (32) Terry Labonte, Ford, owner points.

  38. (51) Justin Allgaier, Chevy, owner points

  39. (34) David Ragan, Ford, owner points

  40. (38) David Gilliland, Ford, owner points

  41. (40) Landon Cassill, Chevy, owner points

  42. (5) Kasey Kahne, Chevy, owner points

  43. (78) Martin Truex Jr., Chevy, owner points

FAILED TO QUALIFY 44. (77) Dave Blaney, Ford, 195.560 45. (87) Joe Nemechek, Toyota, 194.551 46. (35) Eric McClure, Ford, 194.366 47. (44) J.J. Yeley, Chevy, 192.154

Sports, Pages 27 on 05/04/2014