Brian Vickers on Pole at Talladega as Favorites Fall to the Back

Photo Credit:  Getty Images for NASCAR

TALLADEGA, AL – RIS – Brian Vickers surprised everyone when he won the pole position for the GEICO 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup race with a lap of 196.129 mph.  It was Vickers’ first pole since 2009.  Vickers will start first in Sunday's action, the sixth race of the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup playoffs and the finale of the three-race Contender Round. After Sunday's race, four drivers will be eliminated from the field of title-eligible drivers, leaving just eight remaining in the championship hunt.

"It's crazy," said Vickers, who benefited from a slowing field that allowed him to catch an aero pull at the end. "I thought with coming to three (laps) to go we had literally no shot. … I just tried not to wreck."

Six-time series champion Jimmie Johnson turned a lap of 195.732 mph in the third and final round of group qualifying, allowing him to start second in Sunday's main event in the No. 48 Chevrolet. Johnson, far back in a tie for last place among Chase eligible drivers, likely needs to win Sunday to keep his championship hopes intact.

AJ Allmendinger qualified third with Ryan Blaney -- making his second Sprint Cup start -- fourth ahead of Team Penske teammate and 2012 champion Brad Keselowski in fifth place. Terry Labonte qualified an impressive ninth for the final start of his career in NASCAR's top division. Keselowski, though, will be dropping to the rear of the field because of a change to the alternator on his No. 2 Ford.

Saturday's qualifying on the 2.66-mile speedway was the first for NASCAR's premier series using a new format at restrictor-plate tracks. Each knockout stage of multicar qualifying was scheduled for five minutes, with the field being divided into two five-minute group sessions (determined by random draw) for the first elimination phase. The rules change was intended to curb the tactic of drivers on the track at widely varying speeds, lagging behind for an aerodynamic pull or better positioning in the draft.

Paul Menard, making his first start with crew chief Justin Alexander atop the Richard Childress Racing No. 27 pit box, was fastest in the first group of the first session with a lap at 198.903 mph. That time held up as the best overall after the second 23-driver group clocked their times.

In each opening-round group, a Chase driver took to the track in a solo run while others waited on pit road for an advantageous time to start qualifying. Denny Hamlin drove off by himself and was slowest of the 23 drivers in the opening five-minute group. Carl Edwards did the same in the second opening group, but rejoined the rest of the field on pit road to draft with the others.

The waiting game cost a handful of big-name drivers in the second qualifying group in the opening session. It cost Ricky Stenhouse Jr. the most as he failed to make the field for the first time in his Sprint Cup career.

Four-time series champion Jeff Gordon was also bitten early on, as he never got up to full song for a qualifying lap at speed before time expired; he registered the slowest time among the 46 drivers at 176.562 mph.

"I messed up, ultimately," Gordon said. "I just mistimed getting to the line. The whole group was moving so slow and I had to have a gap. … It's a mess out there. It's not easy."

Stenhouse blamed Gordon and the No. 24's spotter for the qualifying mix-up: "He kept slowing the pack down and we didn't get a good lap and never got across the start/finish line in time," Stenhouse said. "My spotter was giving me the information I needed and I wish the 24 would have been doing the same."

Others affected were Kevin Harvick, Joey Logano and Kyle Busch -- who claimed the 40th- through 42nd-fastest laps and failed to advance past the first elimination. Greg Biffle was 25th-fastest, making him the first driver failing to make the cut for the second qualifying session.

"You are trying to set yourself up to go fast. I don't know," Logano said. "If you lay back you get a faster lap but if you don't go, you don't get there in time. I don't know how much we missed it by. I guess it was about a half a second that we missed it by and that was enough. You have to draw the line somewhere and that is where it was."

NASCAR spokesperson Kerry Tharp said Saturday afternoon that though teams were made aware of the rules change to qualifying on Sept. 4, several were still uncertain about the format's nuances come Saturday.

"You would think that that information and all of that strategy would have filtered down from the race teams to the drivers," Tharp told SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. "You would think they would've had a better understanding of what we were doing out here today. That's why I said lessons learned today. I think that there were some drivers, probably moreso than we thought, that had not fully comprehended that this was a change from what we did here in the spring, and I think that unfortunately they were trying to approach it in a similar way that we did it in the spring, and it kind of bit them in the rear."

A large contingent of part-time drivers and surprising names making the 24-driver first cut -- Blaney, Trevor Bayne, Michael McDowell, Travis Kvapil, Cole Whitt
and Mike Wallace among them -- made for what seemed to be three stunners on the failed-to-qualify list: Stenhouse, Justin Allgaier and Reed Sorenson.

That list changed, though, in a post-qualifying inspection when the qualifying speed for Joe Nemechek was disallowed after officials discovered an improperly sealed oil tank encasement. That ruling left Nemechek out and reinstated Sorenson to the starting lineup.

The surprises continued in the second round, with Kvapil topping the board at 196.907 mph in the Circle Sport Racing No. 33 Chevrolet, the same car that won the pole position with Brian Scott driving at Talladega in May. McDowell, Labonte and McDowell also advanced to the final five-minute session.

The four drivers currently outside the top eight positions in the Sprint Cup standings can control their own destiny with a victory on Sunday, but others have better than outside chances of advancing with solid results and significant points.

Two of those drivers in the bottom four -- Matt Kenseth and Keselowski -- will drop to the rear for unapproved adjustments. Kenseth, just one point behind eighth-place Kasey Kahne at the cut-off line, will drop to the rear of the field during pace laps Sunday because of an unapproved engine change in his No. 20 Toyota before qualifying. He participated in time trials regardless of the penalty, winding up 13th in an attempt to grab a favorable selection of pit stall and just missing the final 12-driver cut.

Talladega Superspeedway: 46th Annual GEICO 500

Pos, Driver, Car, Speed, Time
1) Brian Vickers, No. 55 Aaron's Dream Machine Toyota, 196.129 mph, 48.825 sec
2) Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Lowe's Chevrolet, 195.732, 48.924
3) AJ Allmendinger, No. 47 Scott Products Chevrolet, 195.496, 48.983
4) Ryan Blaney(i), No. 12 SKF Ford, 194.015, 49.357
5) Brad Keselowski, No. 2 Redd's Wicked Apple Ale Ford, 194.007, 49.359
6) Michael McDowell, No. 95 Jordan Truck Sales Ford, 193.693, 49.439
7) Travis Kvapil, No. 33 Little Joe's Autos Chevrolet, 193.603, 49.462
8) Kasey Kahne, No. 5 Farmer's Insurance Chevrolet, 193.498, 49.489
9) Terry Labonte, No. 32 C&J Energy Services Ford, 193.431, 49.506
10) Michael Annett #, No. 7 Golden Corral Chevrolet, 193.162, 49.575
11) Ryan Newman, No. 31 Caterpillar Chevrolet, 191.302, 50.057
12) Martin Truex Jr., No. 78 Furniture Row Chevrolet, 190.981, 50.141
13) Matt Kenseth, No. 20 Home Depot Toyota, 193.415, 49.510
14) Alex Bowman #, No. 23 Dustless Blasting Toyota, 193.376, 49.520
15) Carl Edwards, No. 99 Subway Ford, 193.291, 49.542
16) Trevor Bayne(i), No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Tire & Auto Center Ford, 192.401, 49.771
17) Aric Almirola, No. 43 Smithfield Ford, 192.278, 49.803
18) Kurt Busch, No. 41 Haas Automation Chevrolet, 192.096, 49.850
19) Casey Mears, No. 13 GEICO Chevrolet, 191.908, 49.899
20) Paul Menard, No. 27 Moen/Menards Chevrolet, 191.773, 49.934
21) David Gilliland, No. 38 Long John Silver's Ford, 190.985, 50.140
22) Cole Whitt #, No. 26 Bad Boy Mowers Toyota, 190.970, 50.144
23) Mike Wallace(i), No. 49 Royal Teak Collection Toyota, 184.729, 51.838
24) Greg Biffle, No. 16 3M Ford, 191.577, 49.985
25) David Ragan, No. 34 Dockside Logistics Ford, 191.420, 50.026
26) Marcos Ambrose, No. 9 Black & Decker Ford, 191.214, 50.080
27) Danica Patrick, No. 10 GoDaddy Breast Cancer Awareness Chevrolet, 191.149, 50.097
28) Dale Earnhardt Jr., No. 88 Diet Mountain Dew Chevrolet, 191.134, 50.101
29) Landon Cassill(i), No. 40 Carsforsale.com Chevrolet, 191.130, 50.102
30) Austin Dillon #, No. 3 Dow Chevrolet, 191.027, 50.129
31) Jamie McMurray, No. 1 Cessna Chevrolet, 190.818, 50.184
32) JJ Yeley(i), No. 83 Burger King/Dr Pepper Toyota, 190.689, 50.218
33) Clint Bowyer, No. 15 PinkLemonade5HrEnergybnftLBBC Toyota, 190.681, 50.220
34) Michael Waltrip, No. 66 MyAFibStory.com Toyota, 190.586, 50.245
35) Josh Wise, No. 98 Dogecoin/Reddit.com Ford, 190.507, 50.266
36) Reed Sorenson, No. 36 Zing Zang Chevrolet, 189.305, 50.585
37) Tony Stewart, No. 14 Bass Pro Shops/Mobil 1 Chevrolet, , Owner Points
38) Denny Hamlin, No. 11 FedEx One Rate/Deliverminator Toyota, , Owner Points
39) Kevin Harvick, No. 4 Budweiser Chevrolet, , Owner Points
40) Joey Logano, No. 22 Shell Pennzoil Ford, , Owner Points
41) Kyle Busch, No. 18 M&M's Halloween Toyota, , Owner Points
42) Kyle Larson #, No. 42 Energizer Chevrolet, , Owner Points
43) Jeff Gordon, No. 24 Axalta Chevrolet, , Owner Points

Did Not Qualify: # 17 Ricky Stenhouse Jr.; # 51 Justin Allgaier #; # 29 Joe Nemechek(i)
(i) Ineligible for driver points in this series