He finished seventh in the season-opening event last week in Calgary, Alberta.
The Clipsal 500 has been held since 1999 and has become the traditional season-opening event.
He had a subpar 9.90 second pass in the untested Vega, qualifying 17th of the 32 entries at the season-opening event.
The seven-time Grand Slam champion withdrew this week from the WTA's season-opening event in Auckland.
Earnhardt Jr. won the first of those two races, which was the season-opening event at Daytona.
The end result was a closely bunched leader board heading into Sunday's final round of the PGA Tour's season-opening event.
Federer's 68th career title was just his second this season after he won the season-opening event in Doha, Qatar.
One person was temporarily stuck in the rubble, and six people suffered minor injuries at the season-opening event.
Two more season-opening events are at hand next Sunday afternoon.
The concert, the season-opening event of Lincoln Center's American Songbook, got the series off to a sensational start.