Vickers on pole, Johnson qualifies 2nd for Talladega

Oct 18, 2014 - 11:28 PM Talladega, AL (SportsNetwork.com) - Brian Vickers won the pole while Jimmie Johnson earned the second starting position in Saturday's chaotic and confusing qualifying session for the Geico 500 at Talladega Superspeedway.

Last month, NASCAR revised its national series qualifying format for Talladega. It was used for the Sprint Cup and Camping World Truck Series here this weekend.

The first round in knockout qualifying featured the 46-car field divided into two groups (23 cars in each group). Each round was only five minutes in length, instead of the first round in qualifying normally being 25 minutes long.

After the opening round had concluded, several drivers currently competing in the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship had to take a provisional (owner points) position in the starting field. Denny Hamlin will start 38th, Kevin Harvick 39th, Joey Logano 40th, Kyle Busch 41st and Jeff Gordon 43rd. Logano won at Kansas and Harvick scored the victory at Charlotte, allowing both drivers to automatically advance into the next round of the Chase (Eliminator Round). Talladega on Sunday is the elimination race in the Contender Round.

"This qualifying is the dumbest thing I've ever seen in my life," Harvick said. "It just doesn't work on the speedways. They all made a plan and told me to be the lead guy. I took off and no one took off with me. Then we all sat around and here we are."

Ricky Stenhouse Jr., presently 27th in the point standings, surprisingly failed to qualify for the 500-mile race. Rookie Justin Allgaier and Joe Nemechek also did not make the starting field at Talladega.

"I thought being the last car in line would be beneficial for us," Stenhouse said. "We had Jeff Gordon leading the pack there, so I thought we would have a good shot at putting a good lap in, but my spotter was telling me, 'Hey, you have 30-seconds to get across the start-finish line,' as we were entering turn three. I don't guess (Gordon's spotter) was giving him a lot of information. He kept slowing the pack down, and we didn't get a good lap and never got across the start-finish line in time."

Vickers made a lap around this 2.66-mile superspeedway at 196.129 mph during the third and final round in qualifying. The driver of the No. 55 Toyota for Michael Waltrip Racing claimed his 12th career pole in the Sprint Cup Series but his first since August 2009 at Michigan. Vickers is not in the Chase.

"It's crazy," Vickers said. "I thought that coming to three (laps) to go that we had literally no shot. We were way back, like a half a straightaway behind the whole field and they all checked up and gave me a chance and gave me a run. I really get no credit for it. I just tried not to wreck."

Johnson, the six-time and defending Sprint Cup champion, posted a lap at 195.732 mph. He is currently 11th in the Chase point standings and needs to win at Talladega in order to advance into the next playoff round.

"There were a lot of strategies being put into use," Johnson said. "Having to really come through and work out for you is just the toughest thing, because 20 some guys and a lady have an idea of what is going to work and timing that right and finding what works for you is impossible. Not impossible, just the odds very low. Hopefully it is entertaining. You don't really feel like you are doing your part as a race car driver in a qualifying session like this, but it is plate racing, and if it's entertaining, I guess I'm okay with it."

A.J. Allmendinger qualified third, followed by Ryan Blaney, who finished fifth in the Camping World Truck Series race just prior to Sprint Cup qualifying.

Brad Keselowski, Michael McDowell, Travis Kvapil, Kasey Kahne, Terry Labonte, Michael Annett, Ryan Newman and Martin Truex Jr. finished fifth through 12th in the last round.

Labonte, a two-time Cup champion, is making his 890th and final career start, driving the No. 32 Ford for Go FAS Racing.

Keselowski, Kahne and Newman are in the Chase.

The other championship contenders and their starting positions include: Matt Kenseth (13th), Carl Edwards (15th) and Dale Earnhardt Jr. (28th). Earnhardt is also in a must-win situation here, as he sits 12th in the Chase points.

Keselowski and Kenseth, though, will start from the rear of the field. Kenseth's team made an engine change before qualifying, while Keselowski's team replaced the alternator on his car.