Ryan Newman edged Jeff Gordon in Friday's
qualifying at Martinsville Speedway to claim the pole for the Tums Fast Relief
500 -- the sixth race in the "Chase for the Sprint Cup" championship.
Newman lapped the flat 0.526-mile track at 96.795 m.p.h. (19.563 seconds) for
his second pole of the season and the 45th of his Sprint Cup Series career.
"It was a really good lap," Newman said. "It kind of helped to go out a little
bit later to see Mark [Martin] and Jeff and see where there might have some
gains to be made."
Newman also grabbed his third pole at Martinsville. His best finish here is
second, which came in the 2007 fall race.
Gordon, who leads all active drivers with seven poles at Martinsville,
turned a lap at 96.519 m.p.h. for the outside pole.
"This is the kind of qualifying session that we were certainly hoping for, so
nice to see things going our way so far this weekend," Gordon said.
Martin Truex Jr. qualified third, while Mark Martin and David Reutimann
rounded out the top-five.
Casey Mears, rookie Joey Logano, Bobby Labonte, Reed Sorenson and Kevin
Harvick qualified sixth through 10th, respectively.
Newman, Gordon and Martin were the only Chase contenders to qualify in the
top-10.
Jimmie Johnson, the current points leader, starts 15th. Johnson has won five
of the last six races at Martinsville. His lead is now 90 points over Martin
and 135 ahead of Gordon.
Other Chase drivers and their starting positions include: Tony Stewart (13th),
Denny Hamlin (17th), Greg Biffle (20th), Juan Pablo Montoya (21st), Brian
Vickers (24th), Kasey Kahne (26th), Carl Edwards (29th) and Kurt Busch (37th).
Josh Wise was the only driver who failed to qualify.
Sunday's 500-lap race is scheduled to start just after 1:30 p.m. (et).
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