Fantasy NASCAR rankings: 5-hour Energy 500

June 11, 2011 @ 15:12:30

By Brian Polking

The weekend didn't exactly get off to the start that Kurt Busch or Carl Edwards envisioned, but both drivers have to like their chances following qualifying for Sunday's race at Pocono. Busch will start on the pole, and Edwards will roll off sixth. However, the story wasn't where the two drivers qualified but rather what happened leading up to time trials.

After putting down top-10 speeds in both practice sessions Friday, Kurt Busch got loose and slammed the wall. His team was forced to pull out a backup car, and Busch only got a handful of laps to dial in the new chassis. Instead of putting Busch behind the competition and hurting his fantasy value, the backup car powered Kurt to the pole. Considering he has two wins and three runner-up efforts at Pocono in his career, fantasy owners may want to ignore the lack of practice and take the pole-winning effort as a sign of things to come on race day.

Edwards had a fast car in practice as well. In fact, he topped the opening session. With bad weather expected Saturday and a new rule in place that would award the pole to the fastest driver in the first practice, Edwards decided to go for broke. The downside with the strategy was that he would have to qualify last if qualifying didn't get rained out.

Normally, qualifying early is a big advantage at Pocono because of the cooler track temperatures. When the rain didn't come Saturday, Edwards appeared to be a sitting duck. However, he caught a break when cloud cover kept the track fairly cool throughout the session, giving Edwards a chance to salvage a sixth-place run in qualifying. With solid track position on his side, the two-time Pocono winner should be considered one of the favorites this weekend.

Rk	Driver	Car No.	Make	Sponsor	Team	Starting Pos
1	Denny Hamlin	11	Toyota	FedEx	Joe Gibbs Racing	4
2	Jimmie Johnson	48	Chevrolet	Lowe's Home Improvement	Hendrick Motorsports	14
3	Tony Stewart	14	Chevrolet	Office Depot	Stewart-Haas Racing	15
4	Carl Edwards	99	Ford	Aflac	Roush Fenway Racing	6
5	Jeff Gordon	24	Chevrolet	Drive to End Hunger	Hendrick Motorsports	3
6	Ryan Newman	39	Chevrolet	U.S. Army	Stewart-Haas Racing	8
7	Kurt Busch	22	Dodge	Shell/Pennzoil	Penske Championship Racing	1
8	Clint Bowyer	33	Chevrolet	Cheerios	Richard Childress Racing	12
9	Kevin Harvick	29	Chevrolet	Budweiser	Richard Childress Racing	32
10	Dale Earnhardt Jr.	88	Chevrolet	Mountain Dew AMP Energy	Hendrick Motorsports	21
11	Greg Biffle	16	Ford	3M	Roush Fenway Racing	37
12	Juan Pablo Montoya	42	Chevrolet	Target	Earnhardt-Ganassi Racing	16
13	Kasey Kahne	4	Toyota	Red Bull	Red Bull Racing	17
14	Kyle Busch	18	Toyota	M&M's	Joe Gibbs Racing	34
15	Brad Keselowski	2	Dodge	Miller Lite	Penske Championship Racing	20
16	Mark Martin	5	Chevrolet	GoDaddy.com	Hendrick Motorsports	10
17	Matt Kenseth	17	Ford	Crown Royal	Roush Fenway Racing	27
18	David Ragan	6	Ford	UPS	Roush Fenway Racing	11
19	Paul Menard	27	Chevrolet	Menard's	Richard Childress Racing	2
20	Brian Vickers	83	Toyota	Red Bull	Red Bull Racing	23
21	David Reutimann	00	Toyota	Aaron's	Michael Waltrip Racing	9
22	Jeff Burton	31	Chevrolet	Caterpillar	Richard Childress Racing	33
23	Jamie McMurray	1	Chevrolet	Bass Pro Shops	Earnhardt-Ganassi Racing	13
24	A.J. Allmendinger	43	Ford	Best Buy	Richard Petty Motorsports	28
25	Marcos Ambrose	9	Ford	Stanley Black & Decker	Richard Petty Motorsports	7
26	Martin Truex Jr.	56	Toyota	NAPA	Michael Waltrip Racing	31
27	Joey Logano	20	Toyota	Home Depot	Joe Gibbs Racing	19
28	Regan Smith	78	Chevrolet	Furniture Row	Furniture Row Racing	5
29	Bobby Labonte	47	Toyota	Bush's Baked Beans	JTG Daugherty Racing	18
30	Sam Hornish Jr.	38	Chevrolet	Long John Silver's	Front Row Motorsports	26
31	Casey Mears	13	Toyota	GEICO	Germain Racing	35
32	Scott Wimmer	7	Dodge	SPEED Energy	Robby Gordon Motorsports	42
33	Mike Bliss	32	Ford	C&J Energy	FAS Lane Racing	41
34	David Gilliland	34	Ford	Taco Bell	Front Row Motorsports	30
35	Tony Raines	37	Ford	TBA	Front Row Motorsports	38
36	T.J. Bell	50	Toyota	Green Smoke	MAKE Motorsports	43
37	Andy Lally	71	Ford	TRG Motorsports	TRG Motorsports	24
38	Landon Cassill	51	Chevrolet	Security Benefit	Phoenix Racing	25
39	Dave Blaney	36	Chevrolet	Golden Corral	Tommy Baldwin Racing	40
40	Michael McDowell	66	Toyota	RaceHP.com	HP Racing	36
41	Scott Riggs	81	Chevrolet	WhitneysCollision.com	Whitney Motorsports	39
42	J.J. Yeley	46	Chevrolet	Red Line Oil	Whitney Motorsports	22
43	Joe Nemechek	87	Toyota	NEMCO Motorsports	NEMCO Motorsports	29

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Brian Polking

Racing has been part of Brian's life ever since he can remember, and he spent his childhood at dirt tracks throughout Ohio and Kentucky watching his father race. NASCAR naturally became his favorite sport, and he has been following the Cup, Nationwide and Truck Series for most of his life. Brian majored in journalism and economics at Ohio State University and becoming a sports writer has always been his dream. Although he has covered everything from minor league baseball to the NCAA tournament, his passion has always been NASCAR. Brian has served as a NASCAR writer for a variety of sites, eventually becoming head editor of the NASCAR section for Fanball.com. His knowledge of NASCAR comes from his life-long love of racing, and he tries to add a personal touch to every article he writes. Brian is always up for talking NASCAR with anyone that wants to. Brian joined KFFL's team in 2011.

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