On the Loose Side
A NASCAR BLOG BY Kenny Bruce
A few thoughts while on vacation
A week away from the office and I see the sport has done just fine without me. Never doubted it. ...
• Is it just me, or did the whole NASCAR vs. Jeremy Mayfield mess seem a lot easier to deal with when there was a gag order in place? ...
• Brian Vickers and Scott Speed became the first teammates to qualify one-two in a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race this year when they swept the top two spots at Chicagoland. Seems a bit odd that with all the multicar teams competing in the sport today we’d be this deep into the season before a pair of teammates grabbed the top two spots.
Strange that we’ve had brothers lock in the front row starting positions (Kyle and Kurt Busch at Las Vegas), but no teammates. Until now.
The last time teammates scored positions one and two in Cup qualifying was a year ago – Paul Menard and Mark Martin going one-two during qualifying for the July race in Daytona. To date, that has been Menard’s lone pole.
Hendrick teams took the top two spots at Bristol (Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon), Atlanta (Gordon and Dale Earnhardt Jr.) and Fontana, Calif., (Johnson and Gordon) earlier in the ’08 season.
I guess “took” is up for debate. Fontana and Bristol fields were set according to the rule book when qualifying was canceled due to rain.
On the other hand, teammates finish one-two much more often. It has happened four times already this year (Bristol, Texas, Darlington and Michigan).
Can’t credit, or blame, rain for any of those.
Kenny Bruce
Kenny Bruce is a three-time winner of the National Motorsports Press Association's George Cunningham Writer of the Year Award. He joined Street & Smith's Sports Group in 2001.
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