Allmendinger wins pole, may race in Chase SUNDAY’S RACE

SONOMA — Once again, AJ Allmendinger could be on the road to a spot in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series’ championship chase.

Allmendinger, who qualified for last year’s Chase for the Cup by winning on the road course at Watkins Glen, won the pole Saturday for the Toyota/ Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway.

Starting from the pole on a 10- turn, 1.99- mile road course where passing is difficult could be an advantage that puts Allmendinger, 33, in position to win the race and earn a spot in the Chase for the second year in a row for his JTG Daugherty Racing team.

“Starting up front is important, and hopefully we can go out there and pace the field and get settled in and see how the race plays out,” Allmendinger said.

Allmendinger, who was born in Los Gatos and raised in San Jose, took the pole with a time of 74.385 seconds ( 96.310 mph). It was the second pole of his NASCAR career, the first coming at Kansas Speedway in April 2012. Kurt Busch will start next to Allmendinger on the front row, with Matt Kenseth and Kyle Larson qualifying third and fourth.

Local favorite Jeff Gordon, the Vallejo native who will be driving in his final Sprint Cup race at his home track, will start fifth.

In the two- stage qualifying format, Allmendinger posted the second- fastest speed during the opening 25- minute session, which determines which 12 drivers advance to the final 10- minute session and race for the pole.

Early in the final session, Kyle Busch brought out a red flag when he spun in the dirt coming out of Turn 10 with 7: 01 remaining. With the clock stopped, all of the drivers who were on the track went back to the pits to rethink their strategies.

“I kind of had to reset myself,” Allmendinger said. “The lap times didn’t really seem that fast in the first wave of cars, and after the red flag, the cars fired back out there and put down some big laps. I knew that if I went out and hit my marks, we should have a good shot at it.”

Allmendinger comes to Sonoma 22nd in points with his only top- 10 finishes coming early in the season at Atlanta ( seventh) and Las Vegas ( sixth). He said tire wear and caution flags could be huge factors in Sunday’s 110- lap race.

There are two schools of thought regarding Sonoma strategy: try to make the distance on two pit stops — about 37 laps per stint — and save fuel and tires along the way, or go for three stops — about 27 or 28 laps per stint — and drive more aggressively.

“Tires are so critical,” Allmendinger said, hinting that three stops might be the way to go if the yellow flags fall at the right times. “Once you get to Lap 25, you’re hanging on. Hopefully, we’ll get a clean start, get into a rhythm, click off some laps and see how it goes.”

Kurt Busch’s shot at the pole might have been derailed on younger brother Kyle’s red flag. Kurt was trailing Kyle coming through the section leading into Turn 10 when he was told by his spotter that there was a “car off.” But even though Kurt was able to drive past Kyle’s stalled car, Kurt’s lap was aborted by the red flag.

“That lap was two- tenths quicker that Allmendinger’s pole lap,” Busch said.

Larson and Martin Truex Jr. also had their laps wiped out, even though they were ahead of Kyle Busch on the track when the red waved.

Larson set a track record with a lap of 74.186 seconds ( 96.568 mph) in the first qualifying session, breaking the mark of 74.354 seconds ( 96.350 mph) set by Jamie McMurray during last year’s qualifying.

At one point late in that session, Northern Californians Lawson, Allmendinger and Gordon were 1- 23, until Tony Stewart moved in front of Gordon.