For the third time in as many attempts in the Nextel Cup Series, Patrick Carpentier was able to place his car within the top 43 in qualifying, ensuring himself a place on the starting grid this Friday at Homestead. The Nextel Cup series is running the old-style Cup cars for the last time in history , and ironically, this race is Carpentier first time behind the wheel of this car. He posted the 28th fastest time (31.017) for an average speed of 174.098 mph.
Once again, making the field was a difficult task as just 7 hundreths of a second slower than Carpentier, AJ Allmendinger posted a lap time of 31.089 and will miss the field for Sunday's race, despite running the 37th fastest time today.