Several drivers tweeted their prayers and support to the families affected by the incident. Brad Kes

Kyle Busch s Nationwide team has already won a race but prior to Saturday they had not won a pole. The team owner took care of that during qualifying with a 31.450 second lap that was good for 176.280 mph. Busch edged out Ricky Stenhouse Jr. who laid down a 31.469 second lap at 176.173 mph. Stenhouse was the only Nationwide regular in the top 5 of qualifying. The second row is made up of Kevin Harvick and Kasey Kahne. Harvick clocked in at 31.500 seconds and a speed of 176.000. Kahne tripped the watch at 31.550 seconds and a speed of 175.721 mph. Denny Hamlin and Sam Hornish Jr. rounded out the front three rows.
This is Busch s 24th Nationwide pole of his career but first for his Kyle Busch Motorsports team. Busch has made 237 starts in the Nationwide Series. This is also Busch s first pole in eight starts in 2012. Busch has now sat on the pole for three Nationwide races in nine career starts in Atlanta. This is Stenhouse s 20th top 10 start of 2012. This is Harvick s eighth top 10 start at Atlanta and his eighth this season. Austin Dillon is the fastest qualifying rookie and will be starting ninth.
Tony Stewart is coming off of a weekend where he made headlines las vegas nascar tickets for what he did and said outside of the race car. This weekend he is starting off letting his driving speak for him as he laid down the fastest las vegas nascar tickets qualifying lap during Sprint Cup Qualifying at Atlanta las vegas nascar tickets Motor Speedway. Stewart circled the mile and a half surface of AMS in 29.787 seconds which is a speed of 186.121 mph. The closest competitor to Stewart was Greg Biffle whose 29.863 second lap at 185.648 mph puts him on the outside of the front row for Sunday las vegas nascar tickets night s ADVOCARE 500. Kyle Busch starts on the inside of row 2 after his 185.493 mph lap that took 29.888 seconds. To Busch s outside will be Matt Kenseth who laid down a 29.916 second lap at a speed of 185.319 mph. Jeff Gordon and Mark Martin round out the front three rows of the starting grid.
This pole win marks Stewarts 14th career pole in 489 Cup Series starts. The pole win is his first of 2012 and qualifies him for the Shootout at the beginning of Speedweeks in 2013. This is also Stewart s first pole in 26 career races at Atlanta. Josh Wise is the fastest qualifying rookie. Other notable qualifiers Denny Hamlin 7th, Jimmie Johnson 8th, Kasey Kahne 11th, Carl Edwards 12th, Brad Keselowski 21st, Danica Patrick las vegas nascar tickets 23rd, Kevin Harvick 24th, Clint Bowyer 30th, Dale Earnhardt Jr. 35th and JJ Yeley 43rd.
On Friday during the brief amount of practice time that Sprint Cup Series teams got, speeds appeared to be down quite a bit. This was mainly due to the lack of rubber on the track. However, when the time came to qualify, everyone kicked it up a notch.
Juan Pablo Montoya turned in a lap at 69.438 seconds (127.020 mph), setting a brand new track record by a full three-tenths of a second, to take the pole for today s Finger Lakes 355 at the Glen. It is Montoya s first career Sprint Cup pole on a road course las vegas nascar tickets and the second week in a row that Montoya has qualified on pole.
I think the lap was a really las vegas nascar tickets good lap, Montoya said. You always make mistakes here and there. Its never perfect. You always think I went too far here, I went too little there, I lost it there, but I think everybody does [that].
Kyle Busch qualified second, just half a tenth of a second slower. Jimmie Johnson will start third, followed by Brad Keselowski and Marcos Ambrose. These five drivers broke the previous track record, which was set by Busch last year.
Of the top drivers in points, Johnson in third qualified best of them. Martin Truex, Jr. will start ninth, while Greg Biffle will start 15th. Points leader las vegas nascar tickets Dale Earnhardt, Jr. will start in 16th, while Matt Kenseth will start back in 24th.
Since there were only 43 entries, no one failed to qualify for the race. However, Michael McDowell qualified best of those that still needed to get in on speed. McDowell s lap of 70.160 seconds (125.713 mph) was good enough for the 11th starting spot. Scott Speed in the Leavine Family Racing No. 95 was the second fastest driver not locked in. He ll start 21st.
The session was not without incident. Early in the session, Travis Kvapil got loose in Turn 11 on his warm-up lap, then overcorrected his slide. The result was that Kvapil s Burger King Toyota slid into the SAFER barrier left-front first. Kvapil las vegas nascar tickets s car was damaged extensively, forcing the team to go to a backup car. They will have to start at the rear of the field.
In Saturday evening s Continental Tire 200 presented las vegas nascar tickets by Dunns Tire for the Rolex Sports Car Series, pit strategy was the main factor in determining the winner. Ryan Dalziel, driving the No. 8 Ford Riley for Starworks Motorsport, made his final pit stop a lap prior to the leading No. 60 Ford Riley driven by Ozz Negri, Jr. for Michael Shank Racing. Dalziel had an excellent out lap and was able to beat Negri to pit out.
From there, Dalziel pulled away from the pack while Negri held up a train of four additional Daytona Prototypes. Sebastien Bourdais, driving the Soloson Import-sponsored No. 2 for Starworks, passed Negri for second when he blew a right front tire as a result of flat spots. However, by that point, Dalziel had a 14 second lead.
A late crash involving the Horton Autosport Porsche No. 73 of Patrick Lindsey and the No. 5 Action Express Racing Chevrolet Corvette DP of David Donohue brought out a late caution with 16 minutes remaining. On the restart with four laps to go, Dalziel pulled out a small advantage and held on to take his (and co-driver Lucas Luhr s) first win of the year.
Bourdais second-place finish (shared with Alex Popow) marked Starworks first 1-2 finish in the Rolex Sports Car Series. Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas were third, while the duo of Ricky Taylor and Max Angelelli were fourth. Jon Fogarty and Alex Gurney las vegas nascar tickets rounded out the top-5.
In GT, a similar story played out as Turner Motorsport las vegas nascar tickets got the lone BMW M3 in the field out of the pits ahead of the Marsh Racing No. 31 Chevrolet Corvette driven by Eric Curran, which had led much of the race from pole. The final restart gave Curran, who had the faster of the two cars, one more chance to catch Auberlen. However, Auberlen jumped out to enough of an advantage to take the victory, shared with Paul Dalla Lana.
Curran, sharing with Boris Said was second, followed by the duo of Andrew Davis and Leh Keen in the No. 59 Porsche in third. las vegas nascar tickets Magnus Racing s Andy Lally and John Potter were fourth, while Charles Espenlaub and Charles Putman in Dempsey Racing s No. 41 rounded out the top-5.
A trust has been set up to benefit the family of Brian Zimmerman, the fan who passed away from a lightning strike after the Pennsylvania 400 at Pocono Raceway. Fans can make contributions by sending a check, payable to:
NASCAR Nation is in mourning this Monday after losing one of their own, a race fan during a series of storms that turned tragic. As severe weather swept through Pocono Raceway, shortly after the race was called a 41-year-old man was killed and ten injured as a series of lightning strikes hit behind las vegas nascar tickets the grandstands (four remained in area hospitals, one critical at press time). las vegas nascar tickets In a heartbeat, the smiles surrounding getting the race in on Sunday were replaced by sadness, confusion and concern as everyone tried to figure out what went wrong.
I m pretty sure I know which one it was, said winner Jeff Gordon. We were walking down pit road, the umbrellas weren t doing any good, there was a huge, huge crack from lightning. You can tell it was very close. I mean, that s the thing that s going to take away from the victory, las vegas nascar tickets is the fact that somebody was affected by that.
NASCAR , for its part immediately expressed compassion and concern over the incidents, which were centered around the parking lot area behind Turn 3. According to witnesses, several strikes occurred, the most serious affecting the deceased man and two others who were around and/or inside a car at the time of the incident.
We are deeply saddened that a fan has died and others were injured by lightning strikes following today's race at Pocono," said NASCAR spokesman David Higdon. Our thoughts are with them as well as all those affected by this unfortunate accident.
A member of our raceway family here, a fan, has passed away," added track President Brandon Igdalsky. On behalf of myself, the entire family and everybody here, (we offer) a really las vegas nascar tickets heartfelt (sympathy) that this happened.
The death erased happy faces on Pocono s staff several were understandably shaken by the news after a year s worth of breathtaking improvements las vegas nascar tickets both in and around this 2.5-mile facility. las vegas nascar tickets Profits and attendance were also noticeably up for a speedway that has made its mission, under new Track President Brandon Igdalsky las vegas nascar tickets to cater to the fan. In just 18 months everything from repaving the facility, to shortening the race distance and adding a variety of amenities have been met with almost universal positive reaction.
Now, they re grieving as everyone involves in the sport digests the short timeline of events. According to the National Weather Service, a severe thunderstorm warning was issued at 4:12 for the Speedway, with the heart of the storm expected to arrive at 4:50. Racing stopped shortly after 4:40, giving fans who watched from beginning to end less than ten minutes to run for cover.
NASCAR , in response to the incident made clear they would stop competition immediately if they felt any weather posed a physical threat to fans. Spokesman Kerry Tharp told the Sporting News the cars were out there until the track was completely soaked in order to keep heat in the asphalt, officials hoping the storm would pass and fans would get to see more racing. The track also clearly issued warnings, several times and loud enough for all to hear as fans were urged to run for cover.
Several drivers tweeted their prayers and support to the families affected by the incident. Brad Keselowski, Jeff Burton, and Jimmie Johnson were among those most vocal on Twitter, alon