Dale Earnhardt Jr. Wins Sprint Cup Pole, Quaker State 400 Start Time, Defends Danica Patrick After Kyle Petty Comments

NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. had a busy couple days. The driver won the Kentucky Speedway pole position Friday afternoon heading into this weekend's Quaker State 400 race. The race was originally scheduled for Saturday evening, but rain postponed it to Sunday (today) at noon. Earnhardt Jr. also made headlines for publically defending Danica Patrick after her driving ability was criticized by former racer and current TV commentator Kyle Petty.

Petty referred to Patrick as a "marketing machine" and said she was "not a race car driver" recently. Patrick came out and spoke about the comments taking the politically correct approach. Now fellow NASCAR drivers are coming to Patrick's defense.

Earnhardt Jr. spoke about Petty's comments Friday while finishing first in the Kentucky Speedway pole. "I have to disagree with Kyle," Dale Earnhardt Jr. said. "I think she's a tough competitor. She works really hard at what she does and she has run some really good races. On every occasion, she's outrunning several guys on the circuit. If she was not able to compete or not able to run minimum speed or finishing in last place every week, I think you might be able to say Kyle has an argument. But she's out there running competitively and running strong on several accounts."

As for the Quaker State 400 the starting lineup is below:

1. Dale Earnhardt Jr.
2. Carl Edwards
3. Jimmie Johnson
4. Kyle Busch
5. Marcos Ambrose
6. Denny Hamlin
7. Ryan Newman
8. Brad Keselowski
9. Brian Vickers
10. Juan Pablo Montoya
11. Joey Logano
12. Jeff Gordon
13. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
14. Jeff Burton
15. Clint Bowyer
16. Matt Kenseth
17. AJ Allmendinger
18. Aric Almirola
19. Martin Truex Jr.
20. Greg Biffle
21. Kasey Kahne
22. Kevin Harvick
23. Jamie McMurray
24. Paul Menard
25. Tony Stewart
26. Austin Dillon
27. Kurt Busch
28. David Stremme
29. Danica Patrick
30. Landon Cassill
31. Casey Mears
32. Dave Blaney
33. Michael McDowell
34. David Gilliland
35. JJ Yeley
36. David Reutimann
37. Josh Wise
38. David Ragan
39. Mike Bliss
40. Travis Kvapil
41. Joe Nemechek
42. Scott Riggs
43. Ken Schrader