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David Gilliland won the pole for Sunday’s EA Sports 500 at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway, posting a lap of 191.712 m.p.h. in his Robert Yates Racing Ford.
But his speed was far off the 198.689 that Jeff Gordon posted during practice because NASCAR had mandated smaller restrictor plates earlier Saturday to slow the cars on the newly resurfaced track.
“They kind of threw us under the bus with that change,” Dale Earnhardt Jr. said. “We don’t have any practice, so we really don’t know what to do.”
The 200-m.p.h. mark has been taboo in NASCAR since 1987, when Bobby Allison’s car went airborne at Talladega and almost flew into the packed grandstands along the frontstretch.