While Jimmie Johnson, Tony Stewart, Jeff Gordon and others never made it onto the track, Joey Logano sped to the pole for Sunday’s NASCAR race at Atlanta.
For the second straight session, Sprint Cup qualifying brought more controversy this week with over a quarter of the field not posting a time Friday at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
Thirteen drivers never made it onto the track for qualifying after issues getting through technical inspection. Among those not turning lap include Jimmie Johnson, Matt Kenseth, Tony Stewart and Jeff Gordon, all former series champions who were upset by a process they viewed as flawed. Only 34 cars recorded a speed.
Each team is given one opportunity to pass tech prior to qualifying. If they fail, they must return to the end of the line and wait for others to clear inspection before going through a second time and receiving approval.
The cars of Johnson, Kenseth, Stewart, Gordon and 10 others all failed their initial and subsequent attempts before Round 1 of qualifying ended. Gordon, making his final Atlanta start, called the situation "embarrassing."
Mike Wallace, Matt DiBenedetto, Michael Annett and Reed Sorenson did not attempt a lap and failed to qualify.
"When you have this many teams having issues going through, there's something wrong with this system or something wrong with the amount of time they allotted to get through," Gordon said. "There's no way with this many good cars and talented people that they can't figure out how to get these cars through inspection. These guys are too smart and yeah, we're pushing limits, but there's something wrong here.
"We're just fortunate that (we made the race). I know there's a lot of teams that aren't going to be that fortunate."
Said Kenseth: "They should figure out how to get everyone through tech before qualifying starts, first of all. If they can't do that, they should probably postpone qualifying until they get everyone through tech with that many cars."
Stewart took his frustration to Twitter, posting consecutive tweets condemning what unfolded.
"I don't know what to say about today," Stewart said. "Spent all of our practice working on qualifying. Didn't even get a chance to make a lap. Frustrating!"
During Daytona 500 time trials two weeks ago, NASCAR attempted group qualifying for the first time to determine the lineup for the sport's marquee event. The results proved disastrous with a near pileup on pit road and a multi-car crash occurring when Sorenson attempted to block the faster car of Clint Bowyer.
Drivers vehemently voiced their displeasure with group qualifying being utilized at a restrictor-plate track. NASCAR amended the format three days later.
Of those who did make an attempt Friday, Daytona 500 winner Joey Logano took the pole position for Sunday's race with a best lap of 194.683 MPH. Defending Sprint Cup champion Kevin Harvick qualified second, followed by Jamie McMurray, Denny Hamlin and Carl Edwards.
Despite lessening horsepower and decreasing downforce, speeds were faster than Harvick's pole time (190.398 mph) from last year.
"To be third is great because it is a challenging place because tires fall off fast here and we kept going faster every time we went out, which is unheard of," McMurray said. "With this rules package, the entry speed is quite a bit slower so that makes it a little bit easier. It's been pretty cold all day, but it did cool down quite a bit more in the last hour. But the track had a lot of grip from the time we unloaded. It has been so cool, the sun hasn't really affected it."
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