Gordon calls qualifying 'embarrassing'; Logano on pole

HAMPTON, Ga. — The Daytona 500 winner won the pole for Sunday's Sprint Cup race at Atlanta Motor Speedway. But for the second week in a row, the fastest car wasn't the story.

Joey Logano paced the five-minute group qualifying session with a best lap of 194.683 mph to claim his first pole at the 1.5-mile speedway.

Kevin Harvick will start second, followed by Jamie McMurray, Denny Hamlin and Carl Edwards.

"I don't know what's going on lately," Logano said. "Everything is going well and we're just trying to keep the old train rolling here. It's going great and we'll see what happens on Sunday."

But the intrigue was in the inspection bay as the combination of 47 cars attempting to qualify on the implementation weekend of a new rules package created a quagmire.

Even with qualifying delayed 15 minutes, the first round of qualifying devolved into a spectacle, with 13 cars – including those of former series champions Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon, Matt Kenseth and Tony Stewart – failing to pass inspection in time to partake in the 15-minute session that started at 6 p.m. ET.

Only eight cars made immediate laps in the first round and 34 had posted times when the session ended with Logano atop the board with a lap of 194.240. Logano's No. 22 Ford barely made the session after passing through inspection on its first attempt.

No major teams missed the race - Mike Wallace, Matt DiBenedetto, Michael Annett and Reed Sorenson did not attempt a lap - but drivers questioned the actions of inspectors. Wallace told USA TODAY Sports that NASCAR officials deactivated the screen on the laser platform used to scan for rules compliance before his car was to be checked, expediting six cars ahead of him to their qualifying attempts.

"We had to go back around because we were 40-thousandths of an inch red. The last six cars didn't have to do that, and one of those six cars sent us home," he said. "I don't really understand all the things they do, but that certainly isn't the level playing field we're all told is there. Shame on the team if you're wrong, but don't give five or six guys a free run at it. That's all I know."

Sprint Cup managing director Richard Buck refuted the claim, noting that teams had the opportunity for inspection Friday. Teams, he said, "were pushing it, and that's their job," most of them attempting to find mechanical grip at a track where it is crucial because of tire wear. Twenty cars, he said, about double the usual amount, had to be reinspected at least once.

"We treat everybody the same," he said. "There were cars that came through there two and even a couple cars came through three times. Everybody got a fair shot coming through there in a timely manner. … There was no difference from the first car that came through there to the last ones."

Gordon, making possibly his final start at the site of his Sprint Cup debut in 1992, called the situation "embarrassing."

"[NASCAR] should have recognized they had an issue. I'm sorry, but when you have this many teams that are having issues going through, there's something wrong," said Gordon, who won the pole for the Daytona 500. "There's something wrong with the system or there's something wrong with the amount of time they allot to get through. There's no way this many good cars, talented people, that they can't figure out how to get these cars through inspection. These guys are too smart.

"Yeah, we're pushing limits, but there's something wrong here."

The event came on the heels of a group qualifying mess for the Daytona 500 pole on Feb. 15. Clint Bowyer went on a nationally televised rant, calling the process at the restrictor-plate track ''idiotic'' after his primary car was destroyed in a crash. NASCAR amended the rules for the other series later in the week to try and prevent backups on pit road as drivers played chicken with the clock and each other. The sanctioning body also sent fewer cars out in groups, but there still were wrecks in the Xfinity and Truck sessions.

The process at smaller tracks had gone much smoother under the new group qualifying rules put in place to kick off the 2014 season. But Friday's inspection line backup was a first.

Drivers clearly blamed NASCAR officials although every car had been inspected at least once. Rear camber issues were cited as a common problem.

"When I walked up 10 minutes before qualifying was scheduled to start, there were only 14 cars on pit road. So I have a hard time believing it was the teams," Kenseth said. "They should really figure out how to get everybody through tech before qualifying starts, first of all. But if they can't do that, then they should just postpone qualifying until they can get everybody through tech, in my opinion. When there's that many cars, it's obviously not a team or two teams or five teams or 10 teams trying to get away with something. There was obviously some other issue. "

Stewart tweeted: "I don't know what to say about today. Spent all of our practice working on qualifying. Didn't even get a chance to make a lap. Frustrating!"

Speeds were up again Friday, even with NASCAR implementing rules changes that lowered horsepower and downforce to drop speeds in an effort to improve passing.

With seven minutes remaining in the first round, the top 14 cars with qualifying times had posted times faster than the one Kevin Harvick used to win the pole last August (190.398 mph). Logano's pole-winner, the fastest lap of the day, came on old tires when conventional wisdom suggested speeds should be decreasing.

Harvick said colder temperatures have maximized tire performance and increased downforce by nearly nine percent at Atlanta, more than compensating for reductions in horsepower and the height of spoilers. The phenomenon, he said, is likely to be specific to Atlanta this weekend because of a nearly 40-degree temperature swing from the last Atlanta race on Aug. 31, 2014.

"The cooler air is so much better for making downforce," he said. "But I think that's going to be a normal trend. Everybody's been talking about it and telling everybody the corner speeds are going to be up. In qualifying they're up 11 miles an hour in the corner. That's pretty much going to be the norm. When you slow them down going down the straightaway, they're going to get faster in the center of the corner."

Geoff Bodine's lap of 197.478 mph set on Nov. 16, 1997, stands as the track qualifying record.​

SUNDAY'S LINEUP

Lap length: 1.54 miles

(Car number in parentheses)

1. (22) Joey Logano, Ford, 194.683.

2. (4) Kevin Harvick, Chevrolet, 193.792.

3. (1) Jamie McMurray, Chevrolet, 193.623.

4. (11) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 193.4.

5. (19) Carl Edwards, Toyota, 193.137.

6. (42) Kyle Larson, Chevrolet, 192.949.

7. (31) Ryan Newman, Chevrolet, 192.942.

8. (9) Sam Hornish Jr., Ford, 192.313.

9. (88) Dale Earnhardt Jr., Chevrolet, 192.206.

10. (5) Kasey Kahne, Chevrolet, 192.14.

11. (47) AJ Allmendinger, Chevrolet, 191.483.

12. (2) Brad Keselowski, Ford, 191.403.

13. (27) Paul Menard, Chevrolet, 192.326.

14. (78) Martin Truex Jr., Chevrolet, 192.313.

15. (3) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 192.146.

16. (51) Justin Allgaier, Chevrolet, 192.033.

17. (18) David Ragan, Toyota, 191.496.

18. (10) Danica Patrick, Chevrolet, 191.291.

19. (16) Greg Biffle, Ford, 190.935.

20. (17) Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Ford, 190.692.

21. (13) Casey Mears, Chevrolet, 190.653.

22. (55) Brett Moffitt, Toyota, 190.646.

23. (43) Aric Almirola, Ford, 190.424.

24. (95) Michael McDowell, Ford, 189.558.

25. (15) Clint Bowyer, Toyota, 189.513.

26. (38) David Gilliland, Ford, 189.493.

27. (32) Mike Bliss, Ford, 189.351.

28. (34) Joe Nemechek, Ford, 189.183.

29. (6) Trevor Bayne, Ford, 188.906.

30. (23) J.J. Yeley, Toyota, 188.187.

31. (62) Brendan Gaughan, Chevrolet, 188.117.

32. (33) Brian Scott, Chevrolet, 187.837.

33. (98) Josh Wise, Ford, 183.881.

34. (30) Ron Hornaday Jr., Chevrolet, 181.147.

35. (24) Jeff Gordon, Chevrolet.

36. (20) Matt Kenseth, Toyota.

37. (48) Jimmie Johnson, Chevrolet, Owner Points.

38. (41) Regan Smith, Chevrolet, Owner Points.

39. (14) Tony Stewart, Chevrolet, Owner Points.

40. (26) Jeb Burton, Toyota, Owner Points.

41. (35) Cole Whitt, Ford, Owner Points.

42. (7) Alex Bowman, Chevrolet, Owner Points.

43. (40) Landon Cassill, Chevrolet, Owner Points.

Failed to qualify

44. (66) Mike Wallace, Chevrolet.

45. (83) Matt DiBenedetto, Toyota.

46. (46) Michael Annett, Chevrolet.

47. (29) Reed Sorenson, Toyota.

Contributing: Jeff Gluck

Follow James on Twitter @brantjames