Quiles Backs Up SpeedWeeks With California Pole, Lineup Set

FONTANA,CA - Under clear California skies Victor Quiles powered his #3 Ford Fusion to the pole positions for this week's Auto Club 500. Fresh off a sixth place run, Quiles barely edged Justin Rowden for the top spot by just 0.027 seconds. The top twenty cars are locked in via their qualifying times, as positions 21st thru 40th will be filled through the finishes in the seventy five lap heats that were run later in the day.

The first heat of the day saw Jeff Langer and Ritch Garcia lead a field of 34 cars to the green flag. Only the top ten positions would advance to the main race leaving many drivers in a hurry to get to the front of this seventy-five lap event. It would take only two laps for the first incident of the day to occur. Heading into turn three Keith Black, while running four wide, would drift up into the #30 of Scott Huhn Jr and #09-Pat Fogel. Huhn and Fogel would head towards the outside wall, whereas Black continued forward and made contact with Kevin Dirk, sending him around as well. Huhn’s #30 Chevy would end up rolling over twice after hitting the wall, but he would escape without injury. Dirk would be the only driver from this incident who was able to continue on.

“Guess Black didn’t learn anything after Daytona last week,” Huhn Jr was heard to quip.

Turn three would see more action as on Lap 13, #82-Brian Fletcher, #9-Jason Karlavige and #39-AJ Young would get together while running four wide. The ensuing wreck saw the #9 car climb on top of the #39 and slide against the wall for several yards before ending up on his roof. All three drivers would be forced to retire and miss the next day’s race. Brent Sweet would lose an engine on Lap 28 bringing an early end to his day. Keith Otenberger would share the top two positions for much of the early going. While running fourth, #84-Michael Parker attempted to lap the #21 of Dirk, only to have Dirk come down and clip his right rear quarter panel. Parker would spin out and would incur minimal damage, but would never recover from his wreck and would end up finishing 22nd and would miss the race. Lap 63 would see sixth place runner #80-Dennis Faircloth tapped by Otenberger and sent into the turn two wall, ending his chance of making the race.

The final few laps saw a shootout between Tim Handler, Tyler Wildman and others. No one could mount a successful charge on Handler though and he cruised across the line to take the Heat win. #23-Bryan Kosh would take the final transfer position by just 0.01 seconds. Notables from this heat would go on to miss the race would be top five finishers in last week Daytona 500 Bob Rowden and Kevin Dirk. For Handler, Edward Millard, S Pierce, Corey Bradley, Brian Yaczik, Keith Otenberer and Ron Fox, they will make their first start of the season in tomorrow’s race.

The second heat would see #53-Darrell Watts and #47-Will Henderson lead a field of just 33 cars to start the second heat. Just as in the first race there was an early incident which saw #85-Matthew Wells clipping the rear quarter panel of #5-John Bishop. Bishop would move up the track getting into Jack Yaudes and Jory Fleischauer. All drivers would be taken out of contention for a transfer spot and would thus miss the race. While leading under caution the #47 of Will Henderson suddenly darted left as his suspension failed. He would be forced to retire and he too would miss tomorrow’s race.

Barely under green again another incident would occur on Lap 10 which saw #55-Brian Wallace drift up into Trey Eidson and Bradley Packard. All three drivers would go hard into the turn two wall and all three drivers would be forced to retire. The race would proceed to go green for the rest of the distance.

The middle of the race would see Randall Draheim jump out to a commanding lead only to have the handle of his car go away on the later run. The cars of Matt Peyton, Evan Beaulieu, Dan Grzeszkiewicz and Norm Pelletier would remain in hot pursuit. After the final pit stop Robert Panko would find himself in the lead fending off Beaulieu and Jeremy Hevener. With six to go Matt Peyton would dive below Panko in turn two to take the lead. He would lead the rest of the way in route to his first Heat win of the year.

Notables to miss the field are Daytona 500 champion Anthony Crane, fourth place finisher Jason Meade and early front runner Tyler Dalton. The following drivers would be making their first starts of the season at California: Beaulieu, Pelletier, Grzeszkiewicz & Rich Foreman. Locking themselves in the field on time would be Jeff Langer, for the second week in a row, and Darrell Watts.

                --Tim Daland, AP