NASCAR Sprint Cup Series pole sitter for the Chevy Rock ‘N’ Roll 400 at Richmond International Raceway Mark Martin (Right) and his 4 year old Grandson Mathew (Left). (Photo: LAT Photographic)
Friday was pressure packed at Richmond International Raceway, where 10 drivers are battling for the final eight spots in the Chase for the Sprint Cup.
The Chase field will be set at the conclusion of Saturday night’s Chevy Rock ‘N’ Roll 400 at RIR.
Here’s how the 10 drivers in point positions 5-14 looked during practice and qualifying on Friday at the 0.75-mile, D-shaped oval:
5. CARL EDWARDS, Roush Fenway Racing. Qualified: 10th. Chase margin: 105 points — Edwards was decent in practice, seventh fastest in the first session and 14th during Happy Hour. The good news is he has a huge points margin over 13th place and probably will make the Chase with simply a top-25 finish. His 10th-place effort was a good start on Saturday night.
Quote: “Worrying about things you can’t control is not good. That’s not productive, but I would say 50 percent of my thoughts are, ‘Let’s get this car good. Let’s make it as fast as we can.’ That’s where my active thinking is going, but, still, I can’t get rid of the, ‘Hey, we’ve got to be cautious, be a little bit more careful, anything can happen.’ That mentality is still there.”
6. KASEY KAHNE, Richard Petty Motorsports. Qualified: 5th. Chase margin: 96 — Kahne, who just found out that he’ll be driving Fords next year, jumped way up, from 19th in the opening practice round all the way to fifth in Happy Hour, an impressive progression. And that’s where he qualified, too, as he made the most of his day.
Quote: “We need to figure out how to run well this weekend, and if we do that, we’ll be in a good position come next week. It should be pretty awesome going into the Chase. We just need to get through tomorrow night, run good and we’ll start off good in the Chase.”
7. KURT BUSCH, Penske Racing. Qualified: 13th. Chase margin: 95 — Frankly, Busch struggled on the day, running 30th in the first practice and 23rd in Happy Hour. He also learned that he’ll be losing crew chief Pat Tryson at the end of the year, when Tryson will move to Michael Waltrip Racing and take over the crew chief duties for Martin Truex Jr. The elder Busch improved to 13th in qualifying, which is OK, though not great.
Quote: “For us, we hope to have a little less pressure by locking ourselves in last weekend. But it didn’t happen … a tough lesson learned.”
8. JUAN PABLO MONTOYA, Earnhardt Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates. Qualified: 14th. Chase margin: 88 — Montoya made a great improvement on the day, starting the first session 13th on the speed charts, but moving up to fastest overall in Happy Hour, which bodes well for him on Saturday. He had a decent qualifying run, though not an exceptional one.
Quote: “Our first goal this year was really making the Chase. I think the wins will come. I think the way we’ve been running, we’ve been there. We’ve been so close probably three or four times this year we’ve had the chance to win the race and it hasn’t happened, I think it’s just a matter of time. Before you can get wins you have to compete for them. You’ve got to be there and you have to give yourself chances. We’re doing that.”
