Confusion reigns about Talladega qualifying
NASCAR cut the field in half for the first round of qualifying, when 23 cars had five minutes to make their qualifying lap. Nobody wanted to be the first driver on the track, and many sat on pit road waiting for traffic to pull out. The first drivers were beat by the clock as they tried to time it to make their fast lap at the end of the five minutes, but their times were not counted because many of them failed to cross the start/finish line in the allowable time.
"I thought being the last car in line would be beneficial for us. We had Jeff Gordon leading the pack there I thought we would have a good shot at putting a good lap in, but my spotter was telling me, 'Hey, you have 30-seconds to get across the start-finish line' as we were entering Turn 3," Stenhouse said. "(Gordon) kept slowing the pack down and we didn't get a good lap and never got across the start-finish line in time. My spotter was giving me the information I needed and I wish (Gordon's) would have been doing the same."
The bottom of the field consisted of championship contenders Denny Hamlin, Harvick, Joey Logano and Busch and many other NASCAR heavyweights. Tony Stewart will start 37th and is followed by Hamlin, Harvick, Logano, Busch, Kyle Larson and Gordon. Brad Keselowski and Matt Kenseth will drop to the back of the field because Keselowski changed his alternator and Kenseth changed his engine. Associated Press