No one was more surprised than Patrick Carpentier after he won the pole position for tomorrow's Lenox Industrial Tools 301 NASCAR Sprint Cup race.
No one was more surprised than Patrick Carpentier after he won the pole position for tomorrow's Lenox Industrial Tools 301 NASCAR Sprint Cup race.
Carpentier put up a 129.776-mph (or 29.349-second) lap during a qualifying session that was split in two by a torrential downpour that left the track with very little rubber on it.
But it also made the temperatures plummet. And when the temperatures go down at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, speeds will increase.
Nine of the top-10 qualifiers made their runs after the two-hour rain delay.
Bobby Labonte, another Dodge driver, will start outside the front row. He was the sixth car out when the session resumed and his 129.059-mph (29.512-second) lap knocked Kevin Harvick from the top spot.
His time held up until Carpentier took the track about 25 minutes later.
Harvick will start inside row two. He slid into Turn 3, slapping the right rear corner of his Chevy Impala against the retaining wall.
Scott Riggs came from the ranks of the so-called "go or go home" drivers, who must qualify to make the race, will start in fourth place.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. qualified in fifth, despite having trouble with his race car, but he said the track condition helped him.
The only driver from the first session to start in the top-10 was Reed Sorenson. Sorenson grabbed the pole from Ryan Newman about 20 minutes into the session but when qualifying was over he sixth.
Newman was the first driver out on the track. He will start in 16th.
Sorenson said he was pushing on his hot lap.
Franchitti will be joined by eighth-place Martin Truex Jr. on the fourth row.
Last year's race winner, Denny Hamlin was in second place as the red flag fell on the first part of the qualifying session.
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