By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service
BRISTOL, Tenn.— A Ford driver hadn’t won a pole position at Bristol Motor Speedway in more than 10 years, but that changed radically on Friday afternoon when Aric Almirola snagged the top starting position for Saturday’s Bass Pro Shops Night Race (7:30 p.m. ET on USA, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
In the final round of time trials, Almirola covered the .533-mile distance in 14.946 seconds (128.382 mph) to become the first NASCAR Cup Series pole winner at Thunder Valley since Greg Biffle claimed the top starting spot in March of 2012.
“We had a really good (car) in practice,” Almirola said. “We ran, I think, 55 laps straight, and I felt really good about it. We swapped over to (qualifying trim), and it still had a lot of speed.
“I’m really proud of the effort on this team. We were bummed out we didn’t make the Playoffs, but we’re showing what we’re capable of. We can race with these guys. Yeah, we’re going to try and do it for 500 laps (Saturday) night.”
In fact, Ford drivers locked out the front row for the cutoff race for the Round of 16 in the Cup Playoffs, with Chase Briscoe running second to Almirola with a lap in 14.968 seconds (128.193 mph). Alex Bowman (128.176 mph) qualified third in the tightly bunched field, with Denny Hamlin (127.911 mph) taking the fourth starting position.
Playoff drivers will occupy positions two through nine on the grid. Brad Keselowski in the 10th position joined Almirola as the only other non-Playoff driver to qualify for the final round, as six Ford drivers made the final 10.
Kevin Harvick, who realistically is in a must-win position after suffering calamities in the first two Playoff races, will start seventh.
Among Playoff drivers who failed to qualify for the final round, Austin Dillon and Daniel Suarez have the most ground to make up. Dillon, three points below the cut line, qualified 28th, one position better than Suarez, who is six points ahead of Kyle Busch in 13th.
An eight-time winner at Bristol, Busch spun in practice and qualified 21st.
From his earliest memories, Bristol has held a special distinction for Chase Elliott
Long before he started racing in the NASCAR Cup Series, Chase Elliott developed a special affinity for Bristol Motor Speedway and the Bass Pro Shops Night Race.
“Yeah, I think Bristol is the one that kind of has that asterisk next to it for me, just because the environment here is…
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