Allmendinger wins pole for Sonoma road-course race

Jun 27, 2015 - 8:57 PM Sonoma, CA (SportsNetwork.com) - A.J. Allmendinger claimed his first pole in the Sprint Cup Series in three years after winning Saturday's qualifying for the Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway -- the first road-course race in NASCAR's top series this season.

Allmendinger earned the top starting position for Sunday's 110-lap race at this 1.99-mile, 12-turn Northern California road course with a lap at 96.310 mph during the second and final round of qualifying. The driver of the No. 47 JTG Daugherty Racing Chevrolet scored his third career pole in the series but his first since April 2012 at Kansas.

He also gave JTG Daugherty Racing its maiden pole since the organization began competing in Sprint Cup.

"The Kingsford (team sponsor) Chevy has been good these first two days," Allmendinger said. "I've really got to thank all my guys that are here and especially back at the shop. They've worked on this car so much to do everything that we need to get as much speed out of it as possible. So it's a good day, but we've got to focus on tomorrow."

Allmendinger won the most recent road-course race this past August in Watkins Glen, New York, which allowed him to qualify for the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship -- his first appearance in the playoffs. He is currently 22nd in points. His hometown of Los Gatos is about 100 miles south of Sonoma.

There have been 10 different winners in the past 10 Sprint Cup races at Sonoma. Allmendinger is hoping to become the 11th. He started second and led the most laps with 35 in last year's race here but wound up finishing two laps behind in 37th after he was involved in a accident with Dale Earnhardt Jr. late in the event.

"We know that if we go do our job and if I do my job tomorrow, and we have solid pit stops, and we just take care of business, at the end we should give ourselves a chance," Allmendinger said. "That's all we can ask for. It's a solid start, but the prize is tomorrow."

Kurt Busch, who won the previous Sprint Cup race two weeks ago at Michigan, qualified second at 96.095 mph. The series took a break last weekend.

"To be on the outside pole, that's awesome," Busch said. "That's what we wanted. And now we've got all kinds of strategy plays to figure out now to get into race mode. So we did our job. We're on the front row."

Matt Kenseth took the third spot, followed by Kyle Larson and Jeff Gordon, who has the most wins at Sonoma with five. This will be Gordon's last race here. He grew up in Vallejo, California, just miles away from this track.

Finishing sixth through 12th in the last round of qualifying were: Clint Bowyer, Tony Stewart, Casey Mears, David Ragan, Brad Keselowski, Kyle Busch and Martin Truex Jr.

Other notable drivers and their starting positions include: Jimmie Johnson (13th), Carl Edwards (14th), Denny Hamlin (15th), Ryan Newman (16th), Kevin Harvick (17th), Jamie McMurray (18th), Joey Logano (19th), Dale Earnhardt Jr. (20th), Danica Patrick (21st) and Kasey Kahne (26th).

Brendan Gaughan was the only driver who failed to qualify.