DOVER, Del. – Ryan Newman solidified his reputation as the fastest driver in NASCAR by winning his fourth pole of the season in qualifying Friday at Dover International Speedway.
It was the second straight top start and 11th overall for Newman, who again leads the Winston Cup circuit after posting a series-best seven last year.
He hustled his Penske Dodge around The Monster Mile in 22.682 seconds, turning a fast lap of 158.716 mph.
“We have lots of horsepower,” Newman said, deferring credit to his crew. “It was a great team effort.
“The car unloaded off the truck very fast, and we didn’t have to do too much with it. I just go out and drive the car for all it’s worth.”
Newman finished fifth after taking the top spot a week ago for the Coca-Cola 600, and on Sunday will be seeking his second victory this year and third of his career.
Starting second in Sunday’s MBNA 400 will be teammate Rusty Wallace, who turned a lap of 157.322 mph. Neither came close to Wallace’s 1999 track record of 159.964 mph or Bobby Labonte’s event record of 159.320 mph that same year.
Despite his qualifying prowess, Newman has not lived up to expectations after being rookie of the year in 2002 and finishing sixth in the standings. He’s 24th this year, in part because he has failed to finish four times.
But winning the pole after his performance Sunday at Lowe’s Motor Speedway has Newman thinking positively.
“The way our season has been going, it’s just starting to get going,” he said.
Racing on Dover’s high-banked concrete surface adds to that feeling of confidence.
“I like this race track a lot,” Newman said. “And I’m happy to be qualifying well, like we have all season.”
Taking the outside pole was a big step for Wallace as he tries to end the worst slump of his career. Now, if he can covert his starting spot Sunday into his fourth career victory on The Monster Mile, Wallace will end a 74-race losing streak dating to April 2001.
“The cars are absolutely not lacking on performance,” Wallace said. “We were lacking on luck earlier in the year.”
Wallace has always liked racing at Dover, and thought he had a great shot at winning after taking the pole here in September. But he blew a tire.
“I’m really optimistic,” Wallace said. “We’re sure not running slower as the year goes on.
“We’re understanding the Dodge, and we’re getting better and better.”
Jeremy Mayfield gave Dodge the first three spots on the 43-car grid with a lap 157.198.
“That’s good for Dodge,” he said. “We were good off the truck today, and we just kept working on it.”
Although he’s 32nd in the points, Mayfield feels good about the rest of the season.
“Our effort has been really good all year,” he said. “But we’ve had some bad luck – like last week, when we cut a tire and wound up with a 43rd-place finish.”
Points leader Matt Kenseth goes from the fourth spot in a Ford off a lap of 157.006.
Jimmie Johnson, a winner the last two weeks at Lowe’s Motor Speedway, qualified fifth in his bid to join teammate and car owner Jeff Gordon, David Pearson and Wallace as the only drivers to win three straight races at Dover. Johnson went 156.651 in a Chevrolet.
Sterling Marlin starts sixth, followed by Kurt Busch, Terry Labonte, Gordon and Steve Park.
Ricky Craven qualified 20th.
Leffler inherits first NASCAR Truck win
DOVER, Del. – Jason Leffler got his first NASCAR truck series victory after dominant teammate Ted Musgrave blew his engine Friday at Dover International Speedway.
Musgrave, the defending champion, looked untouchable in the second half of race, but slowed after a puff of smoke came from the rear of his Dodge with 57 laps remaining in the MBNA 200.
Leffler, running second, assumed the lead in his Dodge and was never seriously threatened. The victory ended a string of frustration for Leffler in the Craftsman Truck series, where he had six second-place finishes.
“I can’t believe it,” Leffler said. “Ted had some back luck there, and when he has bad luck we usually have it, too.”
The victory came in the debut of Dennis Connor as Leffler’s crew chief. Connor called the shots for 23 victories – the most by any crew chief in series history – by three-time champion Jack Sprague.
Musgrave, a former Winston Cup driver seeking his 12th career victory, took the misfortune in stride.
“It blew up. It’s unusual,” he said. “Maybe once a year something like that happens. It was really, really good. It must have broke a rod or something like that.”
With Musgrave gone, all Leffler had to do was stay out of the wrecks that kept scattering debris all over The Monster Mile while cutting a field of 33 to 16 by the end.
Leffler’s Dodge beat that of series leader Bobby Hamilton by 3.010 seconds.
“I hope this is the first of many to come,” Leffler said. “We knew we were fast enough to win, but I’ve screwed up and you wonder when something’s going to happen.”
Busch pole goes to Joe Nemechek
DOVER, Del. – Joe Nemechek added another pole to his glittering Busch series resume, taking the top spot with a qualifying record Friday at Dover International Speedway.
It was the third Busch pole this year and 17th overall for 1992 series champion Nemechek, a Winston Cup regular who also will race Sunday in NASCAR’s top series. He’ll try for his 15th Busch career win and third of 2003 on Saturday.
He likes his chances.
“This is a brand new race car we came up here with a few weeks ago and tested for a day, but all we did was race stuff so qualifying was a feather in our caps,” he said. “So we’re pretty fast in race trim.”
At the very least, Nemechek’s test went far better than one he made two years ago at The Monster Mile, when he crashed and broke a leg, putting him out of action for several weeks.
“I knocked the wall out in Turn 3,” he recalled. “We just wanted to come back and work on some things.”
Nemechek put his Chevrolet on the pole with a run of 156.747 mph. That edged out Kasey Kahne, whose Ford had a fast lap of 155.750.
The top seven qualifiers bettered Mike Skinner’s track record of 155.932, set in the fall of 2000.
CART drivers happy with lit up Milwaukee
WEST ALLIS, Wis. – Paul Tracy didn’t need to run many practice laps to see how well the CART Champ Cars handle under the lights at the Milwaukee Mile.
“I brushed the wall and I had to sit out a lot of the session,” Paul Tracy said Thursday night following the opening practice for the Centennial 250 – CART’s inaugural night race Saturday night.
“But I was watching on TV and guys were running side-by-side and passing, going just about anywhere they wanted on the track,” added Tracy, a three-time Milwaukee winner and the defending champion.
In an effort to put on a better show, CART has mandated that the road-course aerodynamic package be used here.
That increases downforce and will, hopefully, allow the cars to race side-by-side and pass during the race – neither of which they have been able to do in recent years on the 1.032-mile oval.
“I think it will be a difficult race,” said Bruno Junqueira.
, tied for the series points leader with Paul Tracy after the first five races. “I have never run high downforce on a short oval. In Milwaukee, we are used to downshifting, but maybe we won’t need to brake now because of the aero package.”
Adrian Fernandez agreed that the new aero package will promote passing.
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