FONTANA, Calif. (AP) — Austin Dillon won the pole for the NASCAR Cup Series race at Auto Club Speedway on Friday after no drivers completed a lap inside the very last spherical of qualifying.
Dillon essentially got his fourth career pole via default after a weird scene that left enthusiasts booing the drivers.
“I have visible it in different sports, but never in ours,” Clint Bowyer stated. “We simply were given booed, and it is disappointing.”
With all 12 final-spherical drivers determined to go out as late as possible in a drafting group, each automobile idled near the front of the pit avenue from the start of the session until more or less 44 seconds remained. When time ran out, the motors had barely exited Turn four, which meant none of the final laps counted.
Dillon was given the pole for turning the quickest lap in the previous consultation in his Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet. He won each of the two rounds of qualifying in which drivers absolutely drove, and his pole became deserved.
“I’m satisfied that our team got the pole that no one ever ran a lap for in qualifying,” Dillon stated with amusement. “I assume it is quite cool. It is probably your final time seeing that kind of qualifying.”
Kevin Harvick will start second Sunday, followed by Aric Almirola, Kyle Busch, and Joey Logano.
The groups’ choice to play an elaborate recreation of the bird on pit road in qualifying resulted from the significance of drafting, which is essentially the only way to put up the fastest lap on longer tracks this season. NASCAR’s new racing regulations bundle minimizes the teams’ differences, making drafting nearly the best gain to be had in single laps.
“We all knew it was coming,” Jimmie Johnson stated. “It turned into only a count of time before this example. Unfortunately, NASCARCAR is in a tough field with these rules bundle and how to qualify. I realize we are sensitive not to have single-car qualifying because it’d be boring at various tracks, and maybe @ this tune, we want to rethink it. Perhaps single-car is how to move about it, so the lovers get to peer every car race for the pole.”
But the wonderful sight of race automobiles now not racing, observed with the aid of lovers booing a lap that didn’t rely upon, turned into a profound sadness to Scott Miller, NASCAR’s senior vice chairman of opposition.
“I saw what our enthusiasts don’t need,” Miller stated. “Having the last 12 automobiles wait until they couldn’t get a time posted on the board and creating a mockery out of the qualifying isn’t always what we expect for our fanatics. It’s a bit on us in that we hoped matters might go better than that. We have some work to do on our element to get a better layout, so things like that can not occur.”
Miller stated that changes to the qualifying rules will likely be made weeks before the circuit visits Texas Motor Speedway. Miller is “not quite certain what” NASCAR will do; however, an exchange probably won’t be vital for the quick song at Martinsville next week because drafting isn’t as crucial there.
“We do not need to head back to single-vehicle qualifying, but there might not be every other way,” Miller stated. “We want to attempt to exhaust each opportunity before we do this because it’s now not as a laugh, not as exciting of a display because of the group situation.”
