NASCAR Auto Club Speedway 2015/03/22

NASCAR Auto Club Speedway  2015/03/22

The NASCAR Sprint Cup Pole went to Kurt Busch with a lap of 185.142 Mph, completing the lap in 38.889 seconds. The second quickest person was surprise surprise Kevin Harvick with a lap of 185.047 Mph completing the lap in 38.909 seconds. Stewart Haas Racing must be very proud. Their 4 cars taking the first two places on the grid, with Tony Stewart (182.445 Mph) in 20th and Danica Patrick (182.140 Mph) in 22nd. 

Being in the news Cherry Boy Alex Bowman (181.443 Mph) gets an honorary mention in 28th position. 

The pole last year in March was taken by Matt Kenseth with a lap of 187.315 Mph. What is interesting to note that unlike the last two rounds, the pole time was slower that the year before. So in this case the lower down force and the power drop regulated in the 2015 rules has had the desired affect, by slowing that cars down, not by a lot but still it is slower. As a reference point the fastest ever pole here is held by The other younger Busch ...... Kyle Busch with a lap of 188.285 Mph set in 2005. The correct thing to say would probably be that NASCAR is just doing the best they can to keep the cars speed in line with the previous year. 

It should be a very good race.

Have a great weekend. 

Qualifying times are listed below

Start	Car	Driver		Quali Speed	Quali Time
1	41	Kurt Busch		185.142	38.889
2	4	Kevin Harvick		185.047	38.909
3	20	Matt Kenseth		184.966	38.926
4	18	David Ragan		184.886	38.943
5	42	Kyle Larson		184.337	39.059
6	11	Denny Hamlin		184.233	39.081
7	24	Jeff Gordon		184.087	39.112
8	2	Brad Keselowski		184.063	39.117
9	31	Ryan Newman		183.725	39.189
10	15	Clint Bowyer		183.407	39.257
11	27	Paul Menard		183.383	39.262
12	78	Martin Truex Jr.		183.299	39.280
13	22	Joey Logano		183.323	39.275
14	48	Jimmie Johnson		183.257	39.289
15	19	Carl Edwards		182.978	39.349
16	9	Sam Hornish Jr.		182.904	39.365
17	88	Dale Earnhardt Jr.		182.848	39.377
18	47	AJ Allmendinger		182.764	39.395
19	5	Kasey Kahne		182.746	39.399
20	14	Tony Stewart		182.445	39.464
21	3	Austin Dillon		182.343	39.486
22	10	Danica Patrick		182.140	39.530
23	43	Aric Almirola		181.800	39.604
24	46	Michael Annett		180.397	39.912
25	33	Brian Scott		181.768	39.611
26	1	Jamie McMurray		181.626	39.642
27	17	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.		181.557	39.657
28	7	Alex Bowman		181.433	39.684
29	16	Greg Biffle		181.392	39.693
30	55	Brett Moffitt		181.219	39.731
31	51	Justin Allgaier		180.995	39.780
32	35	Cole Whitt		180.560	39.876
33	34	Chris Buescher		180.505	39.888
34	26	Jeb Burton		180.023	39.995
35	98	Josh Wise		179.775	40.050
36	6	Trevor Bayne		179.314	40.153
37	13	Casey Mears		179.051	40.212
38	62	Brendan Gaughan		178.607	40.312
39	32	Mike Bliss		178.328	40.375
40	40	Landon Cassill		177.773	40.501
41	23	JJ Yeley		176.479	40.798
42	83	Matt DiBenedetto		176.099	40.886
43	38	David Gilliland		175.434	41.041
DNQ	44	Travis Kvapil		178.081	40.431
DNQ	29	Reed Sorenson		176.878	40.706