The No. 99 Nascar Next Gen Camaro ZL1, driven by Daniel Suarez and fielded by Trackhouse Racing, missed the pole position by a fraction of a second in qualifying for the Cup Race at Circuit of the Americas (COTA).
Suarez in the No. 99 Camaro posted a time of 132.369 seconds around the 3.4-mile road course, but was bested by Ryan Blaney in the No. 12 Ford Mustang, whose time was a blistering 132.343.
Cole Custer in the No. 41 Mustang will start third, while the No. 8 Camaro of Tyler Reddick will start in fourth on the second row. Alex Bowman in the No. 48 Camaro, who won at Las Vegas earlier this year, rounds out the top five for this week’s event.
Chase Elliott in the No. 9 Camaro is the only driver in the Hendrick Motorsports stable to be winless so far in the Cup Series this year. Things could very well turn around for him at COTA – he won a dramatic rain-shortened event at the Texas track last year. He will start 12th when the green flag drops today.
No. 9 Nascar Next Gen Camaro ZL1 driven by Chase Elliott, COTA 2021 winner
It’s also worth noting that five teams overall incurred penalties for failing pre-qualifying inspection multiple times, including two Chevy racing teams: the No. 50 Camaro of Kaz Grala, and the No. 77 Camaro of Josh Bilicki. The No. 50 team had a chassis specialist ejected, and the No. 77 team had a race engineer removed from competition at COTA. Additionally, the No. 66 Ford of Boris Said and the No. 78 Ford of Andy Lally failed. Lally was not allowed to qualify and will serve a pass-through penalty during Sunday’s race.
Interestingly, the No. 6 Ford Mustang driven by Brad Keselowski was also nabbed for failing inspection multiple times. Earlier this week, the No. 6 Mustang team was heavily penalized for modification of a single-source part, and it’s certainly interesting that the race car was caught out of tolerance once again.
Nascar did not disclose the infractions that resulted in the aforementioned penalties.
| Pos | Car Number | Driver | Team | Time | Speed | Car |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 12 | Ryan Blaney | Menards/Richmond Water Heaters Ford | 132.343 | 92.759 | Ford Mustang |
| 2 | 99 | Daniel Suarez | CommScope Chevrolet | 132.369 | 92.741 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
| 3 | 41 | Cole Custer | One Cure Ford | 132.471 | 92.669 | Ford Mustang |
| 4 | 8 | Tyler Reddick | 3CHI Chevrolet | 132.552 | 92.613 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
| 5 | 48 | Alex Bowman | Ally Chevrolet | 132.656 | 92.54 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
| 6 | 22 | Joey Logano | Shell Pennzoil Ford | 132.892 | 92.376 | Ford Mustang |
| 7 | 20 | Christopher Bell | DeWalt Toyota | 132.912 | 92.362 | Toyota TRD Camry |
| 8 | 11 | Denny Hamlin | FedEx Ground Toyota | 133.051 | 92.265 | Toyota TRD Camry |
| 9 | 31 | Justin Haley | LeafFilter Gutter Protection Chevrolet | 133.566 | 91.91 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
| 10 | 2 | Austin Cindric # | Discount Tire Ford | 133.94 | 91.653 | Ford Mustang |
| 11 | 45 | Kurt Busch | Monster Energy Toyota | 132.669 | 92.531 | Toyota TRD Camry |
| 12 | 9 | Chase Elliott | Llumar Chevrolet | 132.698 | 92.511 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
| 13 | 5 | Kyle Larson | HendrickCars.com Chevrolet | 132.698 | 92.511 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
| 14 | 14 | Chase Briscoe | Mahindra Tractors Ford | 132.782 | 92.452 | Ford Mustang |
| 15 | 18 | Kyle Busch | Skittles Lime is Back Toyota | 132.79 | 92.447 | Toyota TRD Camry |
| 16 | 1 | Ross Chastain | ONX Homes/iFly Chevrolet | 132.801 | 92.439 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
| 17 | 19 | Martin Truex Jr. | Bass Pro Shops Toyota | 132.994 | 92.305 | Toyota TRD Camry |
| 18 | 4 | Kevin Harvick | GEARWRENCH Ford | 133.164 | 92.187 | Ford Mustang |
| 19 | 21 | Harrison Burton # | Freightliner Ford | 133.263 | 92.119 | Ford Mustang |
| 20 | 16 | AJ Allmendinger(i) | Action Industries Chevrolet | 133.297 | 92.095 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
| 21 | 3 | Austin Dillon | Bennett Chevrolet | 133.352 | 92.057 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
| 22 | 17 | Chris Buescher | Fifth Third Bank Ford | 133.356 | 92.054 | Ford Mustang |
| 23 | 23 | Bubba Wallace | leidos Toyota | 133.682 | 91.83 | Toyota TRD Camry |
| 24 | 24 | William Byron | RaptorTough.com Chevrolet | 133.922 | 91.665 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
| 25 | 10 | Aric Almirola | Rush/Mobil Delvac 1 Ford | 134.137 | 91.518 | Ford Mustang |
| 26 | 6 | Brad Keselowski | Wyndham Rewards Ford | 134.149 | 91.51 | Ford Mustang |
| 27 | 34 | Michael McDowell | Love's Travel Stops Ford | 134.164 | 91.5 | Ford Mustang |
| 28 | 47 | Ricky Stenhouse Jr. | SunnyD Chevrolet | 134.255 | 91.438 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
| 29 | 38 | Todd Gilliland # | Boot Barn Ford | 134.324 | 91.391 | Ford Mustang |
| 30 | 43 | Erik Jones | FOCUSfactor Chevrolet | 134.411 | 91.332 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
| 31 | 50 | Kaz Grala(i) | Pit Viper Sunglasses Chevrolet | 134.476 | 91.288 | #N/A |
| 32 | 7 | Corey LaJoie | Schluter Systems Chevrolet | 134.492 | 91.277 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
| 33 | 42 | Ty Dillon | chevyliners.com Chevrolet | 134.531 | 91.25 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
| 34 | 77 | Josh Bilicki(i) | Zeigler Auto Group Chevrolet | 135.307 | 90.727 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
| 35 | 51 | Cody Ware | Nurtec ODT Ford | 135.584 | 90.542 | Ford Mustang |
| 36 | 27 | Loris Hezemans(i) | Hezeberg Systems Ford | 135.66 | 90.491 | Ford Mustang |
| 37 | 66 | Boris Said | Bumper.com Ford | 138.038 | 88.932 | Ford Mustang |
| 38 | 15 | Joey Hand | Ford Pass Rewards Visa Ford | 0 | 0 | Ford Mustang |
| 39 | 78 | Andy Lally(i) | MaintenanceSupplies.com Ford | 0 | 0 | Ford Mustang |
- # – Rookie
- i – Points ineligible
- * – Part-time driver
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Comment
That #99 was flying yesterday and braking hard in Turn #12 where I was sitting.