Qualifying report

NASCAR Cup Kentucky

Kentucky qualifying rained out for Cup and XFINITY Series

Kyle Larson and J.J. Yeley, will start on the pole for the NSC and NXS races, respectively, at Kentucky Speedway.

Lee Spencer

Edited: Jul 24, 2015, 3:37 PM

Copy link

Share on Viber

Add as a preferred source

A Chip Ganassi Racing crew member walks in the rain

Kyle Larson, Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet

Jeff Gordon, Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet

Ryan Blaney, Woods Brothers Racing Ford

NASCAR President Mike Helton and Eddie Wood

J.J. Yeley, BK Racing Toyota

Jeff Gordon, Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet and Kurt Busch, Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet

Rain in Kentucky

NASCAR has cancelled qualifying in both the Sprint Cup and XFINITY Series due to inclement weather.

Per the rulebook, the starting lineups will be based on first practice speeds.

Kyle Larson will lead the way to the green in the Quaker State 400 after posting a lap of 182.537 mph on Friday. Followed by Brad Keselowski, Jeff Gordon, Joey Logano, Martin Truex Jr. and Jimmie Johnson.

"I was glad we got a little track time there," Larson said. "I was quick off of the truck, which I was proud of the team for...I was able to lay down a real fast lap, went back to race trim and was fast there, too."

Ryan Blaney, Travis Kvapil and Michael McDowell failed to qualifying for the Cup race based on race attempts. For the Wood Brothers, consecutive rain-outs have kept the No. 21 Ford from running for two-straight weeks.

"The rules are the rules," said team owner Eddie Wood. "In the event of a rainout they set the field by attempts, which means how many races you've attempted to race this year. So us and the 95 have attempted less races than 43 other guys, so we're the ones that are out.

"Missing races, if you're slow and you miss a race because you're not fast enough, is a bad deal. That just kills your soul. But you can't do anything about the weather. We've been really lucky the last seven years and haven't missed one but now the numbers seem to be leveling out."

On the XFINITY side, J.J. Yeley and Ty Dillon will start from the front row followed by Brendan Gaughan, Keselowski, Paul Menard and Kyle Busch.

“We’re slowly catching up to where the big guys are,” Yeley said. “Kentucky is one of my favorite tracks. I’m looking forward to a good run today.”

NASCAR felt the Cup teams time was better spent dialing in the new low downforce package which was implemented for this racetrack. Logano’s first impression of the new package was that the cars did not ha

“They slide all over the place,” said Logano, who posted a fast lap of 180.102 mph. “What happens in traffic is still probably an unknown, but there was a lot of slipping and sliding around and trying to figure out which way the car is going when you go into the corner is kind of hard. We’ll see.”

We want your opinion!

What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?

Take our 5 minute survey.

- The Motorsport.com Team

Read and post comments

Share Or Save This Story

Copy link

Share on Viber

Previous article Motorsport.com partners with Raceline

Next article Kyle Larson is fastest in both Kentucky practices

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

View More & Comment

Latest news

Tom Cruise interested in racing ARCA car, per NASCAR CEO Steve O'Donnell

NASCAR Cup

NAS NASCAR Cup

Charlotte II

1 h

Tom Cruise interested in racing ARCA car, per NASCAR CEO Steve O'Donnell

Gibbs, Spire and Gabehart argue over contempt and injunction

NASCAR Cup

NAS NASCAR Cup

Charlotte II

4 h

Gibbs, Spire and Gabehart argue over contempt and injunction

William Byron to run Jeff Gordon throwback Axalta scheme at Phoenix

NASCAR Cup

NAS NASCAR Cup

Charlotte II

5 h

William Byron to run Jeff Gordon throwback Axalta scheme at Phoenix

Alexander Rossi takes over IR-28 testing as IndyCar pushes new chassis to the limit at Sebring

IndyCar

Indy IndyCar 5 h

Alexander Rossi takes over IR-28 testing as IndyCar pushes new chassis to the limit at Sebring

Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.

From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.

You have 2 options:

Become a subscriber.
Disable your adblocker.

Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here

Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page

Manage Alerts