LifeLock.com 400 Qualifying Update

Chicagoland Speedway -- 07/11/2009

Author: Becca Gladden

Published: Saturday Jul 11 2009 12:59pm

A few stories heading into Saturday night’s race at Chicagoland relate to Cup qualifying, the Nationwide race, and the weather.

Brian Vickers took the pole in qualifying here on Thursday for his fifth Coors Light Pole Award in 19 races. While those fast qualifying runs haven’t been parlayed into wins yet, it does say something about the speed coming out of the Toyota/Red Bull camp.

In fact, Vickers’ Red Bull teammate Scott Speed, in a go-or-go-home ride, surprised many people in the garage by snagging the outside pole, creating an all-Red-Bull front row to start Saturday’s race. Speed is currently 36th in owner’s points.

In Friday’s Nationwide race, Joey Logano silenced a lot of skeptics by winning at Chicagoland, a track where he’s had very little experience. Although the No. 20 car has been a stalwart in the Nationwide series, Logano beat the usual NWS favorites, including Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards, with the help of a little tire strategy.

Weather has been marginal in Chicago with rain in the forecast all weekend, although most of the events have gone off as scheduled. There’s still a 50% chance of rain in the forecast for Saturday. If it rains before the Cup race, drivers will be contending with a green race track and the likelihood of at least one competition caution in the early going.

The schedule at Chicagoland this weekend called for practice and qualifying on Thursday, followed by two practice sessions Friday. Not surprisingly, Brian Vickers was the fastest car in pre-qualifying practice Thursday, followed by Mark Martin, Scott Speed, Jimmie Johnson, and Jeff Gordon. Johnson had the fastest car in Friday’s first practice, while Mark Martin paced Happy Hour. Teams worked all sorts of different agendas depending on their interpretation of the weather data and whether some events – particularly Friday practice – would be affected.

The first five rows will line up as follows:

Row 1: Brian Vickers / Scott Speed

Row 2: Jimmie Johnson / Denny Hamlin

Row 3: Clint Bowyer / Kyle Busch

Row 4: Jeff Gordon / Bill Elliott

Row 5: David Reutimann / Marcos Ambrose

Jimmie Johnson is the heavy favorite with odds makers early Saturday morning. Although he’s never won at Chicagoland, he’s finished second twice and third twice, and narrowly lost to Kyle Busch here last year. Johnson’s No. 48 team has always had a strong intermediate track program and crew chief Chad Knaus generally does a superior job adjusting the car in races that transition from daytime to nighttime.

Odds-makers' Favorites:

Jimmie Johnson +275
Kyle Busch +600
Jeff Gordon +500

Mid-pack Maybes:

Tony Stewart +800
Mark Martin +1000
Carl Edwards +1200

Long-shots to Watch:

Greg Biffle +1800
Dale Earnhardt Jr. +1800
Ryan Newman +2800

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