LONG POND — Jeff Gordon, last week’s winner of the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, was asked Friday at Pocono Raceway about the NASCAR Sprint Cup Rookie of the Year competition.
“I think Austin (Dillon) is great, but Kyle Larson is a special individual, and talent like that comes around only every so often,” Gordon said.
One day after celebrating his 22nd birthday, Larson proved how special he has become Friday in Sprint Cup qualifying for Sunday’s GoBowling.com 400.
After Joey Logano won the first two sessions of the knockout format, Larson beat an approaching rain shower and put up a track-record speed of 183.438 mph early in the final five-minute session of top-12 qualifiers. No one could match the speed, so Larson joined Dillon as the second Sunoco Rook-
ie of the Year contender to earn a Sprint Cup pole this season.
Larson, who was fifth in the Pocono 400 in June, clinched a spot in next season’s Sprint Unlimited by winning the pole.
“I had some butterflies actually going into it, where I haven’t had any butterflies at all this season during qualifying,” Larson said about the final round. “I don’t know if it was because I wouldn’t get the pole if I mess up. I was definitely nervous.”
After easily making the top 24 qualifiers in the first session and placing second to Logano after the second session, Larson found the speed for his first pole in 25 Sprint Cup starts and to break Denny Hamlin’s previous track record of 181.415 mph, set in June.
The lap also frustrated Logano, who earned his sixth front-row start this season.
“The second (place) sucks,” Logano said, laughing, “but there’s still something to be proud of. We made the final session in each qualifying session beside the superspeedway, so any track that handling comes into, we made the final session.”
Fellow Penske Racing driver Brad Keselowski, who lost the Pocono 400 in June on a late pass by Dale Earnhardt Jr., took the third spot to start Sunday’s 1 p.m. race on the inside of the second row.
“We can win from third. We are happy with that and we’ll move on,” Keselowski said after he started his final-session lap with only 18 seconds left.
The second qualifying session was telling for several drivers. Those eliminated from the top-12 final run for the pole included six-time Sprint Cup champion Jimmie Johnson, former Sprint Cup champion Tony Stewart and Hamlin, the Pocono 400 polesitter whose team lost crew chief Darren Grubb to a six-race suspension after the Brickyard 400 for a post-race inspection violation.
Kurt Busch will start fourth, while Gordon finished fifth and Earnhardt Jr. will start ninth.
Dillon, who will drive the D.G. Yuengling-sponsored Light Lager No. 3 in today’s Camping World Truck Series Pocono Mountains 150, reached the final round and finished 11th in his American Ethanol No. 3.
“I feel the car handled as good as it could,” Dillon said. “I felt like I nailed my lap and we are four-tenths off. … We just have to find some speed somewhere. I do think our cars are going to race very good. It’s the best race car we have had all year.”
However, it — and everyone else’s cars — had no answer for Larson, who bids for his first Sprint Cup victory Sunday in hopes of ensuring a spot in the Chase for the Championship.
“There’s definitely a little bit more pressure each week that we’re closer to the Chase when you don’t have a win,” Larson said. “It would be nice to get a win and relax a little bit.”
FIRST IS BEST: Matt Kenseth, who will start Sunday’s race from 18th spot, disputes the idea that any driver who is locked into the Sprint Cup Chase for the Championship might drive more cautiously as the season nears the Chase and its final 10 races.
“You get the most points to win,” Kenseth said. “I don’t know why you’d never want to win. … You get the most points by leading the most laps and winning, so why would want to show up and sit on the pole, lead every lap and win the race?”
COMING TO THE END: Returning to the track where he last won and expressed his close ties to outgoing crew chief Steve Letarte, Earnhardt expressed relief that Hendrick Motorsports has tagged Greg Ives to be his crew chief in 2015. Letarte is moving to an analyst position with NBC Sports.
He also admitted that doesn’t make the rest of 2014 any easier.
“It’s a lot of emotion,” he said. “Every race, it gets harder knowing this is Steve’s last year. As we’re winding down to the Chase, it’s pretty emotional for all of us.”
INCONSISTENCY: Johnson said no team has had a stranglehold on results in the Sprint Cup Series this season.
“Each team hits to hit on something at a particular track and can light it up,” he said. “But to take it week to week and track to track, it’s tough. I feel we have been very competitive at a lot of the tracks, but at Indy, we just didn’t have it. It’s been inconsistent per team and per organization.”
ARCA: Third-generation stock car driver Justin Allison, of Salisbury, North Carolina, took the lead with 10 laps remaining when leader Brennan Poole pitted and led the rest of the way to take the ModSpace 125 after a rain delay of more than an hour.
Taking his first career ARCA victory, Allison became the 18th different winner in the last 18 ARCA races at Pocono.
Will Kimmel placed second ahead of Tom Hessert, Poole and Justin Boston.
The series also announced Friday that it will adopt a new engine package option featuring fuel injection for the 2015 season.