NASCAR Daytona 400 Qualifying Takes interesting Turn

A rain hit qualifying session at Daytona saw an interesting mix of drivers being in the front positions for Daytona. David Gilliand took pole position for the third time in 276 races which marked the first time that his team had ever made pole position. In fact, his team have never got through the first round of qualifying this season. There was double joy for the team when another team member, David Regan managed eighth position.

The reason for the shake up was that after the first round of qualifying the rain came down and so the second session was delayed and eventually cancelled meaning that the first round results were what determined the pole positions of all of the drivers.

Gilliand admitted afterwards that he prayed hard for rain so that his position in pole would remain. He explained that his first ever pole was at the Daytona 400 and so this meant a lot to him. He said that it was a big morale booster for the whole team.

The qualifying session was pretty bizarre even before the rain came and prevented further rounds taking place. The new qualifying system has not been in place before at Daytona and he importance of the aero draft really came in to play which meant that drivers were trying all sorts of different speeds, trying different strategies and trying to link together with team mates to get better positions. Gilliand explained that he and his team mate decided just to get near the back of the pack and go for a fast lap and see what happened rather than trying any complicated tactics and it obviously paid off for them.

The starting positions will be Gilliand, Sorenson, Cassil, Labonte, Johnson, Kenseth and Earnhardt Jr. Right back in 26th is Brad Keselowski, the winner of last week’s race and his team mate Joey Logano was back in 28th.

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