Almirola earns second career pole at Atlanta

HAMPTON, Ga. — Aric Almirola will lead the field to the green flag for the first time in a NASCAR Cup Series race since 2013.

Almirola’s lap time of 181.472 mph Friday in the final round of qualifying at Atlanta Motor Speedway netted the driver his first pole in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series since the 2012 Coca-Cola 600.

Almirola led the field to green flag at Talladega in October of 2013, however, qualifying for that race was cancelled due to inclement weather.

Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Clint Bowyer, Denny Hamlin and Daniel Suarez rounded out the top-five.

Kevin Harvick, the 2018 Atlanta race winner, will start 18th.

Ryan Preece, the highest qualifying rookie, will start 25th.

2018 series champion Joey Logano will start 27th.

The Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 will be televised Sunday at 2 p.m. ET on FOX.

SOURCES
Jayski
Racing-Reference.info