SONOMA, Calif. – Will Rodgers continued his domination of the NASCAR K&N Pro Series West field at Sonoma Raceway by scoring the pole for the Carneros 200 on Saturday.
Rodgers powered around the 1.99-mile, 12-turn road course in 79.081 seconds (90.591 mph) to lead the pack with his No. 7 KELLY Benefit Strategies Ford. The NASCAR Next class member and Hawaii native is seeking redemption at Sonoma after narrowly missing out to Kevin Harvick during last year’s running of the event.
“I think (winning the race) is actually going to be pretty tough this year,” noted Rodgers, who comfortably earned the pole by nearly half a second. “Last year, we had a different strategy because of the way the race was broken up into halves, but now with the two optional pit stops and only having one set of tires – as well as limited fuel – it’s going to be really hard to make it on one stop.
“I feel like I’m going to have to do a lot of (fuel) saving and play some strategy against some of the other guys,” Rodgers added. “That’s the challenge, but we’re all obviously up against the same challenge, so we’ll see what happens. We know we have good long-run speed in the car, just like last year, so we just need to play our cards right and be there when it counts.”
Despite a healthy margin over Jefferson Pitts Racing teammate and second-quick qualifier William Byron, Rodgers’ pole effort wasn’t without some drama.
Just before the final group was set to go out in qualifying, Bill Kann lost an engine aboard his No. 18, leaving oil down on the back half of the course and leading to a lengthy cleanup before Rodgers and company hit the track to lay down their qualifying attempts.
Nonetheless, Byron was able to post a lap of 79.548 seconds (90.059 mph), placing him alongside Rodgers on the front row for the 64-lap, 200-mile event. Byron has one prior K&N West start at Sonoma. He started second and finished fifth in 2015.
Best among the full-time K&N West contingent was Hailie Deegan, who timed in third-fastest in the No. 19 Toyota for Bill McAnally Racing to mark her career-best qualifying effort. Saturday afternoon’s race will mark Deegan’s road course debut.
Championship runner-up Ryan Partridge and Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series veteran Aric Almirola were fourth- and fifth-fastest, respectively.
Cup regulars Daniel Suarez and Alex Bowman start sixth and seventh, with Derek Kraus, points leader Derek Thorn and Kody Vanderwal completing the top 10 on the grid.
