Ambrose wins pole at The Glen

Marcos Ambrose

Marcos Ambrose won the Coors Light Pole Award in Saturday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series qualifying with a track-record lap of 128.241 mph at Watkins Glen International.

The pole position was Ambrose’s first of the season, first at the 2.45-mile road course and third of his career. He’ll start first in the No. 9 Richard Petty Motorsports Ford in Sunday’s Cheez-It 355 at the Glen (1 p.m. ET, ESPN), the 22nd event of the 26-race regular season.

"It wasn’t perfect, but we carried a lot of momentum," Ambrose said. "It was enough to get the job done."

Ambrose was the fastest of 10 drivers who broke the previous qualifying record of 127.020 mph, set by Juan Pablo Montoya last August. It marked the 12th time this season that a track record has fallen, thanks to the advent of the lighter, fastest sixth generation of NASCAR Sprint Cup Series car this year.

Clint Bowyer will start second in the No. 15 Michael Waltrip Racing Toyota after a lap of 127.958 mph. Martin Truex Jr. — Bowyer's MWR teammate and a winner earlier in the year at Sonoma Raceway, the other road course on the Sprint Cup schedule — qualified third. AJ Allmendinger and Kyle Busch completed the top five.

The qualifying session was the second in the history of the Sprint Cup tour to use the European-style, group qualifying format for road courses. Drivers hit the track in eight groups of five or six cars. The series debuted the new qualifying system at Sonoma in June.

Brian Keselowski spun at the end of the first qualifying group, sliding to a stop in the Turn 5 retaining wall. He will start last in Sunday’s 220.5-mile race.

With 43 drivers competing for 43 starting spots, no drivers failed to qualify.

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