Hornish on pole at Mid-Ohio - Speedway Digest

Sam Hornish, Jr. backed up his fast practice speeds to secure the pole for Saturday’s Nationwide’s Children Hospital 200. Hornish will look to add another victory in the 2014 NASCAR Nationwide Series (NNS) season this afternoon.

His pole-winning speed of 95.873 mph wasn’t enough to break Michael McDowell’s track qualifying speed of 96.256 mph set in 2013.

Second-place qualifier Alex Tagliani tried to take one last chance at the pole, but wheel-hopped the car going into turn four and lost control of his No. 22 Discount Tire Ford. The team looked over the car for any issues and Tagliani will start second, if no post-qualifying adjustments were made to fix the car.

Fastest first round qualifier Brian Scott posted the third fastest time in the final session and his Richard Childress Racing (RCR) and rookie teammate, Ty Dillon, will start beside him. Both drivers scored top-10 finishes in last weekend’s race at Watkins Glen.

Dillon’s fellow Rookie of the Year (ROTY) competitor Chris Buescher rounded out the top five and served as the only bright spot for Roush-Fenway Racing (RFR). His teammate, Trevor Bayne, missed the final round and qualified 14th, as Ryan Reed got off course and starts 28th. Bayne is also running tomorrow’s Sprint Cup Series race at Michigan with Ryan Blaney practicing and qualifying his No. 21 car for the Wood Brothers.

The most tense part of the qualifying session was the final few minutes of the first round. Drivers kept making their way back into the top 12, until another driver improved and leaving others on the outside looking in. Elliott Sadler appeared to have the 12th and final spot to move into the second round, until Turner Scott Motorsports (TSM) driver Justin Marks slotted back into the sixth spot and knocked Sadler back out. The Talladega winner starts 13th in Saturday’s race.

Rookie Dylan Kwasniewski was on the bubble spot in 12th, before improving his time in the first round to stay safely into the top 12. Kwasniewski is in the No. 42 for this weekend as Kyle Larson is at Michigan running the Sprint Cup race. Marks is in the No. 31 car.

Points leader Chase Elliott qualified ninth for today’s race, as Kenny Habul returns to the No. 20 Sun Energy 1 Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing and rounded out the top ten.

A few other notes: Ryan Ellis qualified the No. 01 JD Motorsports car for Landon Cassill, who was practicing his Cup car at Michigan. Also, Stanton Barrett posts back-to-back top-20 starts for NEMCO Motorsports and Jay Robinson Racing in the No. 87 Toyota. The Hollywood stuntman finished 18th in the Zippo 200 last Saturday.

The green flag for the Natiownide’s Children Hospital 200 will drop shortly after 2:30 p.m. with live TV coverage on ESPN. A.J. Allmendinger and the No. 22 team are the defending winners of the race.

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Kyle Magda

Currently, I’m a journalism student in college who enjoys the sport of racing. I've been following NASCAR in-depth since 2001.Along with my love of racing, I’m also into baseball, football (college & pro), and college basketball.I also have my own website, The Life of Kyle, where I write about various topics.And to get my feet wet into radio, I have my own show called Overdrive. I started it with my friend. Since we can’t record together most of the time, we have our own versions. I cover NASCAR and ARCA, and he takes Formula One and IndyCar.Not forgetting to mention, I have my own YouTube channel as well.As for race tracks, I’ve gone to races at Pocono, Watkins Glen, Daytona, Dover, Loudon and a few local short tracks as well. I hope to cross the Indianapolis 500 off my list in the future. I hope to become a man of many hats.