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Hamlin On Pole At Indianapolis

    Aurora Colorado Tribute
    by Joe Jennings

    The Front Row Motorsports Chevrolet of Ragan Smith carries a tribute to the fallen victims of the Aurora massacre. The Front Row team’s headquarters is only a few minutes away from the scene of the shootings. Kimber Avra, a Front Row Company employee, was at the theater with a friend, Micayla Medek. While Avra only sustained scrapes and bruises, Ms. Medek was killed in the fracas.

    Smith’s car lists the names of the 12 victims, the rear bumper area has a memorial inscription and the hood has a ribbon with a memorial cross in it.


Speedway, IN – Denny Hamlin will lead the field to the green flag in the Crown Royal presents The Curtis Shaver 400 At The Brickyard powered by BigMachineRecords.com Sunday at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Setting a fast lap of 182.763mph, Hamlin out-paced Roush Fenway Racing driver Carl Edwards by just .22 seconds at the 2.5 mile speedway.

Hamlin was the twenty-seventh car to hit the track and had to wait for the final driver, Kasey Kahne, to see if he would have the pole position taken away from him. Kahne had set the fastest lap in the opening practice session and had just captured the pole for the Nationwide Series race.

But Kahne could only come up with a lap of 180.448, good for 15th, in his Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet.

“We started off today not where we wanted to be speed wise and car handling,” said Hamlin. “We identified a problem with our car, fixed it, and realistically we had about thirty minutes to practice. So we fixed it, and it looked like our car picked up speed. Obviously it was a great qualifying run.”

Starting on the second row are Joey Logano and Aric Almirola. Occupying row three are Greg Biffle and Jimmie Johnson. Kyle Busch and defending race champion Paul Menard will fill row four. Jeff Gordon and current point standings leader Matt Kenseth, who touched the wall and left a tire mark in turn three, round out the top ten in the fifth row.

Following post-qualifying inspection, the Phil Parson Racing Ford driven by Michael McDowell was found to have Nitrogen gas in a rear shock that exceeded the allowable pressure and his qualifying time was disallowed. The disqualification allowed Mike Bliss to make the field.

The other two drivers unable to qualify for the Brickyard race were Reed Sorenson and Joe Nemechek.

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