Allmendinger takes Sprint Cup pole
After faltering in the final Sprint Cup practice, AJ Allmendinger was searching for answers.
He found them on Saturday, winning the pole in knockout qualifying on the road course at Watkins Glen International in New York.
Allmendinger turned a fast lap of 127.839 mph to beat Martin Truex Jr. for the top spot. After being 28th in the final practice Friday, that was a huge relief for the defending race winner and Los Gatos native.
“It means we lead the field to turn one, at least,” Allmendinger said. “I was frustrated yesterday. I was overdriving, trying to get more than was there. I didn’t do a good job.”
He did when it counted, besting Truex by three-tenths of a second around the 2.45-mile layout.
A year ago, Allmendinger won a fender-bashing duel with Marcos Ambrose at the end to win his first Sprint Cup race, but his pole win at Sonoma in June — the only other road course on the Sprint Cup series calendar — was for naught when a fuel pickup issue relegated him to a 37th-place finish.
Five-time Watkins Glen winner Tony Stewart qualified third. He was competing less than 24 hours after the family of a driver struck and killed by Stewart’s car on an upstate New York dirt track a year ago filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the NASCAR star.
Kevin Harvick was fourth, followed by Jeff Gordon, Kyle Larson, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Sonoma winner Kyle Busch, Jimmie Johnson and Austin Dillon. Brad Keselowski and Justin Allgaier rounded out the top 12.
Joey Logano won the NASCAR Xfinity race at Watkins Glen, outdueling Penske Racing teammate Brad Keselowski.
Logano, who started from the pole, overcame a stop-and-go penalty early in the caution-filled race and kept Keselowski at bay after a restart with four laps to go in the 82lap race. It’s the first road course win of his career and 25th in NASCAR’s second-tier series. NHL: Chicago Blackhawks star Patrick Kane has hired an attorney and called off a public display of the Stanley Cup because he is under police investigation over something that may have happened at his home last weekend.
Without providing details, lawyer Paul Cambria confirmed in a text message that he has been hired to represent Kane. Cambria is a high-profile attorney who specializes in First Amendment issues. He has represented Hustler publisher Larry Flynt and music artists Marilyn Manson and DMX.
The developments come a day after Hamburg police confirmed Kane is under investigation for an “incident that allegedly occurred” at the player’s offseason home in suburban Buffalo.