The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series qualifies for Sunday's Heluva Good! 400 at the Michigan International Speedway today at 1:10 p.m. The session will be televised on SPEED beginning at 1 p.m.
If there is a favorite to snare the top spot, it could well be Kurt Busch. He won the pole for the previous two Sprint Cup events and is the defending polesitter for this race. The Penske Racing driver had the sixth-fastest time among all competitors in Friday's two practice sessions, meaning he will be the 41st driver to make an attempt.
The fastest driver - and as such, the last driver to make a qualifying attempt today - is Georgia's own David Ragan. Ragan has one pole already this year, at the Texas Motor Speedway in April, and Michigan is the site of what had been his best career finish - third, in August 2008 - before his runner-up finish to Kevin Harvick in the Coca-Cola 600 last month.
The rest of the "fast five" were A.J. Allmendinger, Harvick, David Reutimann, and Kasey Kahne, who sat on the pole for the August race.
There are 46 cars attempting to make the race, meaning that three will fail to qualify. The 11 go-or-go-home drivers, in order of practice speed, are J.J. Yeley, David Stremme, Robby Gordon, Scott Riggs, Andy Lally, Travis Kvapil, Joe Nemechek, Mike Skinner, Tony Raines, Michael McDowell, and Brian Keselowski.
The entire qualifying lineup can be found at Jayski.com.