Carpentier Wins First Career Pole
June 27, 2008 by Tim Zaegel
Filed under Racing
Image details: LENOX Industrial Tools 301 Practice served by picapp.com
Much to pretty much everyone’s surprise, Patrick Carpentier won his first career Sprint Cup pole award when his no. 10 Gillette-Evernham Dodge turned the fastest lap during Friday’s qualifying session, clocking in at 29.349 seconds. Patrick, whom some people feel may be in danger of losing his ride next season, will start Sunday’s Lenox Industrial Tools 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway from the pole position, lining up on the front row next to Bobby LaBonte, whose fastest lap came in 0.163 seconds slower than Carpentier.
Lining up on the inside of Row 2 will be Scott Riggs, whom like Carpentier, enters Sunday’s race outside of the top-35 in owner’s points, and is in dire need of a good finish. Next to him will be 2006 New Hampshire winner, Kevin Harvick. Row 3 consists of fan favorite, Dale Earnhardt Jr, and Reed Sorenson, who returns to the no. 41 Chip Ganassi Dodge after sitting out last week at Infineon. Dario Franchitti and Martin Truex Jr. qualified 7th and 8th, and Matt Kenseth and AJ Allmendinger round out the top-10 starters.
Last year’s race winners at New Hampshire, Denny Hamlin and Clint Bowyer, qualified 12th and 18th respectively. Carl Edwards qualified 17th; Jeff Gordon qualified 19th; Jimmie Johnson qualified 23rd; and for the second week in a row, Kyle Busch and Tony Stewart turned in lackluster qualifying efforts and will start the race in 27th and 28th. Also for the second consecutive week, the majority of the top-ten starters are drivers currently outside of the top-12. The only drivers to accomplish the feat this week were Earnhardt and Kenseth.
Only two drivers failed to qualify for Sunday’s race. Tony Raines was scheduled to make his first start of the season in the no. 34 Furniture Row Motorsports Chevrolet, but came in 0.020 seconds too slow and failed to make the show. Marcos Ambros was slated to make his second start behind the wheel of the no. 21 Wood Bros. Ford, but was the slowest car on the track and was 0.233 seconds slower than 43rd place qualifier, Joe Nemechek.
Click here for the complete starting grid for the Lenox Industrial Tools 301.
I love watching Carpentier qualify, it has become a great reason to watch qualifying every week. Sooner or later, his talent in racing NASCAR machines will catch up with qualifying them. That should be fun.
Watching Carpentier qualify has definitely been a treat. He better hope, though, that as you say, his talent in racing NASCAR machines does in fact catch up to his qualifying efforts, or he could soon find himself without a job.