Fort Worth, TX (Best E Casino) - Fan favorite Dale Earnhardt Jr. captured the pole for Sunday afternoon's Samsung 500 at the Texas Motor Speedway, but it was a spectacular crash involving Michael McDowell that everyone was talking about.
Early in the qualifying session McDowell slammed the wall in turn 1 at nearly 200 m.p.h., barrel rolled about seven times and finally came to a halt near the inside wall. With the SAFER barrier and the COT, the rookie managed to walk away with no apparent injuries. It was a testament to NASCAR's work in improving safety for the driver.
"Something just didn't feel right...then I got down in there (turn 1) and it just started to pull right on me," said McDowell after visiting the infield care center. "Thank the guys back at the shop, they make these cars extremely safe and take the time to pad everything up. For me to walk away from that wreck right there, is unbelievable."
After an hour-long delay to repair the barrier, the No.88 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet driver circled the 1.5-mile. tri-oval in 28.286 seconds (190.907 m.p.h.) to grab the pole from Carl Edwards.
The pole victory was Earnhardt Jr.'s first of the season, second at TMS (also won the pole here in 2001) and eighth of his Sprint Cup career.
"I have to give a lot of credit to the team for building cars that can do things like that," said Earnhardt Jr. "They just build fast cars and that's so much fun for me."
Starting alongside "Junior" will be Edwards' No.99 Ford which posted a time of 28.498 seconds.
Row two will consist of the Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota driven by Kyle Busch (28.561) and 2008 Daytona 500 winner Ryan Newman (28.565) in the No.12 Penske Racing Dodge.
Other drivers of note and their starting positions: Jimmie Johnson (fifth), Matt Kenseth (eighth), Kasey Kahne (10th), Juan Pablo Montoya (11th), Jeff Gordon (18th), Kevin Harvick (21st), Tony Stewart (24th) and Jeff Burton (35th).
After two weeks of bumping and banging on the short tracks at Bristol and Martinsville, the high-speed Texas Motor Speedway is this weekend's destination.
Where last week Gordon finished second despite smashing the front nose of his car in an early race incident, this week the idea is to keep the nose and fenders completely clean. Aerodynamics are of utmost importance at a track where qualifying speeds are around 190 m.p.h.
Burton, already a winner this year, is the defending champion. The No.31 Richard Childress Racing driver and current series points leader won at Bristol. Burton has finished no lower than 13th (Daytona) in any race this season and his third-place finish last week coupled with Busch's problems gave the Virginia native the top spot in the standings.
The race is scheduled to drop the green flag on Sunday at 2 p.m. (et).
