Newman Notches Pole For TUMS Fast Relief 500
10/23/2009
Ryan Newman raced to the TUMS 500 pole.
Ryan Newman picked up his third career Martinsville Speedway pole Friday afternoon when he led qualifying for Sunday’s TUMS Fast Relief 500.
Newman turned in a speed of 96.795 mph (19.563 seconds) around the half-mile oval to score his 45th NASCAR Sprint Cup pole.
It will be an all-Chevrolet front row for Sunday’s race as Jeff Gordon nailed down the second starting spot with a speed of 96.519 mph.
“I definitely look forward to coming back to Martinsville,” said Newman. “I’ve always said that for me and for whatever reason at short tracks the driver has a little more of an impact on the end result then some of the bigger race tracks and I like that.”
Martin Truex was the surprise of the top 10, turning in the third best speed of the day while Mark Martin qualified fourth to give Chevy a sweep of the top four spots.
“We had a good practice today, actually it started out kind of bad. We had a little bit of a skip in the engine and lost about 10 minutes of practice and then with it being an hour, it went by quick and it was short,” said Truex. “We had a good, productive 50 minutes or so and we worked on race trim most of the day.”
David Reutimann rounded out the top five in a Toyota.
Jimmie Johnson, who leads the Chase for the Sprint Cup, provided the shock of the day. Johnson, who has dominated Martinsville the past few seasons, stumbled in qualifying and will start 15th Sunday.
“We didn’t do the best job today, but we’ll have to do a really good job on Sunday to make up for it,” said Johnson.
Gordon’s second-place start will be his 22nd top-10 start of the season and his 25th in 34 races at Martinsville.
Joey Logano was the top-qualifying rooking, nailing down the seventh spot.
Mike Skinner captured the pole for Saturday’s Kroger 200 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race.
Truck Series point leader Ron Hornaday, Jr. will start second in the Kroger 200 with Kevin Harvick, Denny Hamlin and Brian Scott rounding out the top five qualifiers.
Tickets for the TUMS Fast Relief 500 on Sunday, and the Kroger 200 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race on Saturday can be purchased by calling 1.877.RACE.TIX or by visiting www.martinsvillespeedway.com.
Ticket prices range from $25 to $77 for the TUMS Fast Relief 500.
