Coverage of Qualifying for the Crown Royal presents the Curtiss Shaver 400 at the Brickyard Sprint Cup Series race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway is scheduled for Saturday, July 28, 2012 at 2:10pm/et.
TV: ESPN - 2:00pm/et
Scheduled qualifying re-air: none

2011 Pole Sitter: #6-David Ragan, 182.994mph, finished 23rd

Track Qualifying Record: Casey Mears, August 2004, 186.293mph

Oldest Pole Sitter: Mark Martin, 50 years, 197 days, 7/25/2009

Youngest Pole Sitter: Reed Sorenson, 21 years, 5 months, 24 days, 7/29/2007

Fastest First Practice Speed: #5-Kahne, 185.326mph, scheduled to qualify 46th out of 46 drivers

NOTE: no longer doing semi-live qualifying on Jayski.com.
NASCAR.com and FoxSports have live realtime qualifying and hits for my qualifying pages were way down in 2011 due to the availabilty of the real-time qualifying found at those sites.
Will continue to post Jayski.com's unique qualifying results below, to help explain how drivers made the race.
For Realtime qualifying, check out:
NASCAR.com and FoxSports

Hamlin wins pole at Indy: #11-Denny Hamlin won the pole for the Crown Royal presents the Curtiss Shaver 400 at the Brickyard Sprint Cup Series race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway with a speed of 182.763mph for his 2nd pole of 2012 and 11th career pole.
#99-Edwards will start 2nd followed by #20-Logano, #43-Almirola, #16-Biffle, #48-Johnson, #18-Busch, #27-Menard, #24-Gordon & #17-Kesneth
#98-McDowell's car failed post-qualifying inspection; qualifying time disallowed; nitrogen pressure in rear shock exceeded max limit, so the #19 will make the race and the #98 will not.
The go-or-go homers who made the race (8): #21-Bayne, #30-Stremme, #95-Speed, #26-Wise, #33-Leicht, #79-Skinner, #23-Riggs & #19-Bliss .
The go-or-go homers who failed to qualify for the race (3): #91-Sorenson, #87-Nemechek and #98-McDowell (time disallowed).
See qualifying results & starting lineup below or on the Starting Lineup page (pdf).(7-28-2012)

Qualifying Fast Facts - Indianapolis:
#11- Denny Hamlin won the Coors Light Pole Award for the 19th Annual Crown Royal Presents the Curtiss Shaver 400 at The Brickyard Powered by Big Machine Records with a lap of 49.244 seconds, 182.763 mph.
This is his 11th pole in 243 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races.
This is his second pole and 11th top-10 start in 2012.
This is his first pole in seven races at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
#99-Carl Edwards (second) posted his seventh top-10 start of 2012 and his third in eight races at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
#20-Joey Logano (third) posted his first top-10 start at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. It is his ninth in 20 races this season.
#26-Josh Wise (36th) was the fastest qualifying rookie.(NASCAR Statistics)(7-28-2012)

Pole Progression: (who had the pole first, who got it next and who ended up with it)
#33-Leicht, 1st out to qualify, 177.347mph, starts 38th
#30-Stremme, 5th out, 179.211mph, starts 26th
#43-Almirola, 11th out, 181.679, starts 4th
#20-Logano, 12th out, 181.756, starts 3rd
#11-Hamlin, 27th out, 182.763, starts 1st

How did the non Top-35 teams do in qualifying?
Fastest 7 get in, 8th [43rd] spot goes to most recent past champ not in the race already or 8th fastest
[46 entered for 43 spots]:
have qualified for the race:
#21-Trevor Bayne, 180.390
#30-David Stremme, 179.211
#98-Michael McDowell, 177.901
#95-Scott Speed, 177.855
#26-Josh Wise#, 177.743
#33-Stephen Leicht, 177.347
#79-Mike Skinner, 176.894
#23-Scott Riggs, 176.859
will miss the race:
#19-Mike Bliss, 176.180
#91-Reed Sorenspn, 175.610
#87-Joe Nemechek, 175.142

Happy Hour practice: for the Crown Royal presents the Curtiss Shaver 400 at the Brickyard Sprint Cup Series race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway is over, after 110 scheduled minutes, the top five, slowest and notes:
#16-Biffle 181.499
#99-Edwards 181.232
#20-Logano 181.189
#5-Kahne 180.999
#17-Kenseth 180.988
slowest: #32-Schrader 171.435 & #10-Yeley 172.133
See fastest speeds, laps run, best 10-lap average (if any ran 10 laps in a row) on the Indianapolis Happy Hour Practice Speeds page (pdf).(7-28-2012)

Go-or-go homers: where did the cars outside the top-35 in owners points practice in Indy Happy Hour
these drivers would make the race if the things stay the same:
#21-Bayne 14th fastest overall
#95-Speed, 25th
#98-McDowell, 31st
#30-Stremme, 32nd
#26-Wise, 33rd
#79-Skinner, 34th
#19-Bliss, 37th
#33-Leicht, 41st
if things stay the same, this driver would miss the race
#87-Nemechek, 42nd
#91-Sorenson, 43rd
#23-Riggs, 44th
(7-28-2012)

First Saturday practice: for the Crown Royal presents the Curtiss Shaver 400 at the Brickyard Sprint Cup Series race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway is over, after 60 scheduled minutes, the top five, slowest and notes:
#5-Kahne 185.326
#55-Martin 183.520
#24-Gordon 183.292
#48-Johnson 183.235
#2-Keselowski 182.918
slowest: #33-Leicht 175.963 & #91-Sorenson 176.301
incidents: #17-Kenseth & #43-Almirola smacked the wall and scraped the right side of the car.
Speed airs dame day delay coverage of the practice.
this practice determined the qualifying order [2:00pm/et on ESPN today].
Happy Hour practice is scheduled 10:30am/et to 12:20pm/et on ESPN2.
See fastest speeds, laps run, best 10-lap average (if any ran 10 laps in a row) on the Indianapolis Practice 1 Speeds page (pdf).(7-28-2012)

Go-or-go homers: where did the ten cars outside the top-35 in owners points practice at Indy
these drivers would make the race if the things stay the same:
#21-Bayne 13th fastest overall
#98-McDowell, 23rd
#95-Speed, 25th
#26-Wise, 27th
#87-Nemechek, 30th
#79-Skinner, 31st
#23-Riggs, 34th
#19-Bliss, 40th
if things stay the same, this driver would miss the race
#30-Stremme, 42nd
#91-Sorenson, 45th
#33-Leicht, 46th, slowest
(7-28-2012)

Race info at: Race Info Page

Event Entry List

Past Champions Provisional page

All Time Sprint Cup Pole Winners

2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup qualifying procedures:
1) qualifying order will be determined by the driver's fastest lap in first practice.
2) times on the speed sheet will be inverted with the slowest cars attempting their qualifying runs first
3) go-or-go-home cars will now qualify among the 35 teams locked in on owner points and not be separated by the field. 4) the NASCAR Sprint Cup director does reserve the right to change a driver's qualifying order or allow "adjustments or repairs" to cars after the car has taken the green flag at the start/finish line.
5) all cars must qualify with a full fuel cell.
6) qualifying consists of two consecutive timed laps (except at road courses, 1 lap)
7) the fastest lap determines qualifying position
8) in case of a rain-out of practice, a random drawing will be held for cars set up in the garage area to determine qualifying order
9) if qualifying is rained out, the order of the field will be set according to Section 9-5 of the 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup rule book.

If first practice is run, but qualifying is unable to take place, the starting lineup will be based on speeds from the car's fastest lap from the first practice, with top-35 cars in owner points no longer segregated from the non-top 35 cars. Previously, the top 35 cars lined up in front of all other eligible car owners.(NASCAR)(7-7-2011)

Past Champions Provisional Berths in Sprint Cup: A past champion's provisional may be used by an eligible driver a maximum of six times over the course of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season. A team with a past champion eligible driver may only use this provisional a maximum of six times during a season. The provisional gives the eligible driver the 43rd and final starting position in the race field. This is only for a team/driver OUTSIDE the top-35 in owners points, drivers whose team is in the top-35 in owners points, would already be guaranteed in the field and not need the Past Champions Provisional
See my Past Champions Provisional Page for more.

What happens if all qualifying gets cancelled [rain/weather/other]?
If bad weather cancels qualifying, the final starting lineup will be determined by practice speeds. The same rule book procedures will be used to determine eligibility to start a race. If weather cancels practice sessions, then the starting lineup will be set by points, per the rule book.

If qualifying AND all practices are cancled, then:
If it is during the first 5 races of the season, the previous season OWNERS points are used:
#1) - Previous season Owner Points [position 1-35][team does not have to attempt all the races]
#2) - Race winners from the previous and current season not already in the field
#3) - Past Sprint Cup Champions not in by 1 or 2
#4) - Current season Owner Position [Top 35][not in by rules 1-3]
#5) - Current season race attempts ties broken by current owners position [not in by rules 1-4]
#6) - For 2nd race of season, teams that missed Daytona 500, are seeded in owners points by thier finish in the Duels
#7) - Randon Draw if more then one team with no attempts

If qualifying is cancled by at least one practice gets run, then:
If it is the first 5 races of the season, the previous season OWNERS points are used:
#1) - Previous season Owner Points [position 1-35][team does not have to attempt all the races]
#2) - Race winners from the previous and current season not already in the field
#3) - Past Sprint Cup Champions not in by 1 or 2
#4) - Current season Owner Position [Top 35][not in by rules 1-3]
#5) - Current season race attempts ties broken by current owners position [not in by rules 1-4]
#6) - For 2nd race of season, teams that missed Daytona 500, are seeded in owners points by thier finish in the Duels
#7) - Randon Draw if more then one team with no attempts
#8) - One it is determined which teams/driver made the race, then the field is set by 1st practice speeds.

What happens if just qualifying is cancelled?
If it is during the first 5 races of the season, the previous season OWNERS points are used:
#1) - Previous season Owner Points [position 1-35][team does not have to attempt all the races]
#2) - Race winners from the previous and current season not already in the field
#3) - Past Sprint Cup Champions not in by 1 or 2
#4) - Current season Owner Position [Top 35][not in by rules 1-3]
#5) - Current season race attempts ties broken by current owners position [not in by rules 1-4]
#6) - For 2nd race of season, teams that missed Daytona 500, are seeded in owners points by thier finish in the Duels
#7) - Randon Draw if more then one team with no attempts
#8) - One it is determined which teams/driver made the race, then the field is set by 1st practice speeds.

What happens if just qualifying is cancelled?
AFTER the 5th race of the season, the current season OWNERS points are used:
#1) - First 35 by current Owner Points [team does not have to attempt all the races]
#2) - Last Years Sprint Cup Champ or the Event Champion if not already in the field
#3) - Car Owners whose team has won in the previous and current season not already in the field
#4) - Drivers who have won in the previous and current season not already in the field
#5) - Past Sprint Cup Champions not in by 1 thru 4
#6) - Qualifying Attempts with current Owners points as the tie breaker
#7) - NASCAR will hold a draw for teams with no owners points / attempts
#8) - One it is determined which teams/driver made the race, then the field is set by 1st practice speeds.

NOTE: all above apply as long as the team was entered by the entry deadline - usually 7-13 days before the race

2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup qualifying procedures:
1) qualifying order will be determined by the driver's fastest lap in first practice.
2) times on the speed sheet will be inverted with the slowest cars attempting their qualifying runs first
3) go-or-go-home cars will now qualify among the 35 teams locked in on owner points and not be separated by the field. 4) the NASCAR Sprint Cup director does reserve the right to change a driver's qualifying order or allow "adjustments or repairs" to cars after the car has taken the green flag at the start/finish line.
5) all cars must qualify with a full fuel cell.
6) qualifying consists of two consecutive timed laps (except at road courses, 1 lap)
7) the fastest lap determines qualifying position
8) in case of a rain-out of practice, a random drawing will be held for cars set up in the garage area to determine qualifying order
9) if qualifying is rained out, the order of the field will be set according to Section 9-5 of the 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup rule book.