The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series kicked off with a bang last week at the Daytona 500, where Dale Earnhardt Jr. thrilled his legions of fans by snapping a 55-race winless streak with his second career victory at one of the sport's largest showcases. Today at 3:00 p.m., the high-speed racing continues at the Sprint Cup Series race at Phoenix, which can be live streamed here for free.
Brad Keselowski has taken the pole for this race, hitting a top speed of139.384 mph, a track record at Phoenix International Raceway. He barely edged out Joey Logano for the coveted lead spot. He won the first pole of NASCAR's new "knockout format" and admitted that it was more exciting than usual.
"It's a lot more nerve-racking," Keselowski said. "Usually a pretty good rule of thumb is that If it's more nerve-racking for the drivers, it's a lot more fun for our fans and partners and all those things, and that's a good thing. I more interested in feedback from our fans to see if they liked it."
In the new format, all drivers get a 30-minute session to post their best time, with the best 12 reaching a second 10-minute round.
"Unfortunately, we won the wrong one," Logano said. "We won the first one and our teammate got the second one, but either way we both had a chance to win something. He just got the trophy to take the pictures with."
NASCAR officials tried to quell fears that the new format would just promote drivers blocking one another in an effort to keep times down.
"We've got a really good dialogue with all of our competitors," said Robin Pemberton, NASCAR's vice president for competition and racing development. "They don't want to force us to do something that's wrong. They weigh in because they think things can be better. It's our job to take and balance all that out and remove the agenda part of that a team may or may not have. Right now, it's working pretty good."
Dale Jr., the Daytona 500 star, will start fifth today; he started in ninth position last week.
STARTING GRID:
- Brad Keselowski
- Joey Logano
- Jamie McMurray
- Jimmie Johnson
- Dale Earnhardt Jr.
- Greg Biffle
- Kyle Busch
- Kyle Larson
- Aric Almirola
- Kurt Busch
- Kasey Kahne
- Denny Hamlin
- Kevin Harvick
- Clint Bowyer
- Ryan Newman
- Brian Vickers
- Jeff Gordon
- Casey Mears
- Matt Kenseth
- Tony Stewart
- Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
- Paul Menard
- Carl Edwards
- Austin Dillon
- AJ Allmendinger
- Michael McDowell
- Martin Truex Jr.
- David Gilliland
- Marcos Ambrose
- David Ragan
- Cole Whitt
- Brian Scott
- Danica Patrick
- Ryan Truex
- Alex Bowman
- Parker Kligerman
- Blake Koch
- Joe Nemechek
- Reed Sorenson
- Travis Kvapil
- Michael Annett
- Morgan Shepherd
- Justin Allgaier
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