Missing cars were the story of the day Friday at Atlanta Motor Speedway. First there was the No. 44 Chevrolet of Travis Kvapil, allegedly stolen from a Morrow motel.
Then, when pole qualifying for the Folds of Honor Quik Trip 500 got under way late Friday, some of the sport’s top cars and drivers were no-shows.
The cars weren’t really missing; their crews just couldn’t get them through NASCAR inspection in time to qualify, even though NASCAR officials delayed the start of qualifying by 15 minutes. So drivers such as Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Matt Kenseth and Tony Stewart were among the 13 drivers who did not get to make a qualifying run.
“I’m not sure what the issue was, but when I walked up 10 minutes before qualifying was scheduled to start and there were only 14 cars (of 47) on pit road I have a hard time believing it was the teams’ (fault),” Kenseth said. “They should have postponed qualifying until they could get everybody through tech.”
Gordon was more vocal in his criticism.
“There’s no way with this many good cars and this many talented people that they can’t figure out how to get these cars through inspection,” he said.
“Yeah we’re pushing limits, but there’s something wrong here. “I’m embarrassed. I’m embarrassed for our series that this has happened. … It’s absolutely ridiculous.”
Richard Buck, NASCAR’s Sprint Cup Series director, said part of the problem was the new rules package that came into play for the first time and the fact that teams were trying to get their cars as close to tolerances as possible without going over the line.
“What you saw (Friday) was everyone pushing the limit,” Buck said, adding that he would look at the inspection process and see if improvements could be made.
Of the cars and drivers that did get on the track, Daytona 500 winner Joey Logano, a former Alpharetta resident who once raced Legends cars at AMS, was the class of the field, running a lap at 194.683 mph to take the pole for Sunday’s 500.
“It’s been an amazing two weeks,” Logano said. “Starting first is special for me and especially here at this race track.
“I have lots of memories here.”
Kevin Harvick will start second ahead of Jamie McMurray, Denny Hamlin and Carl Edwards.
Missing the race were four of the drivers who did not get to qualify — Reed Sorenson, Mike Wallace, Michael Annett and Matt DiBenedetto.
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