Rain washes out qualifying for Sunday’s Food City 500
BRISTOL, Tenn. — Steady rains at Bristol Motor Speedway forced NASCAR to cancel Friday’s Sprint Cup qualifying session for Sunday’s Food City 500 at the .533-mile short track.
Based on NASCAR’s rainout rules, which order the field for the first five races based on the previous year’s owner points, reigning Cup champion Jimmie Johnson will start on the pole for the fifth points race of 2008, with Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jeff Gordon beside him on the front row.
Forty-six cars were to contend for 43 starting spots. With qualifying rained out, the lowest three cars in current owner points failed to make the field — the No. 10 Gillett Evernham Motorsports Dodge driven by Patrick Carpentier, the No. 34 Front Row Motorsports Chevrolet driven by John Andretti and the No. 21 Wood Brothers Ford driven by Jeff Green.
Both Kurt Busch and Dale Jarrett qualify for the race as past Cup champions. Among those required to make the field on speed, Ken Schrader, Joe Nemechek, Mike Skinner, Michael Waltrip, Brian Vickers and David Reutimann will race on Sunday, based on their standing in 2008 owner points.
Johnson was happy to claim the top starting position, even if he didn’t win it on the track.
“This is one of the most important tracks for qualifying position and pit road pick,” he said. “We worked awfully hard last year to be where we are, and we’ll take it.”
It was another hard-luck day for the Wood Brothers, who had put Green, a previous pole winner at Bristol, in the driver’s seat this week. Bill Elliott had attempted to qualify for three of the previous four races in the No. 21 car and would have qualified for the race as a past champion under rainout rules.
Notes: NASCAR chose to cancel Saturday’s scheduled Nationwide Series qualifying, setting the grid based off 2007 owner points. Due to the schedule change, Saturday’s track action begins with Nationwide practice at 8:30 a.m. ET and lasting until 10 a.m.
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