LaJoie gets pole after Hmiel disqualified

Charter Pipeline 250 Lineup

MADISON, Ill. --- "Man, this really sucks."

Those are the words of Shane Hmiel after he was stripped of the Bud Pole Award for Saturday night's Charter Pipeline 250 at Gateway International Raceway.

Hmiel's car was found to be 17-19 pounds lighter than the allowed weight of 3,300 pounds in post-qualifying inspection.

"I've been racing quite a bit and nothing like this has ever happened to me," said Hmiel. "But, I understand rules are rules. I don't know why it happened, but it's obviously a mistake on our part and we have nobody to blame but ourselves."

Hmiel, driver of the No. 47 Goulds Pumps Chevrolet, thought he had earned a rookie record-tying third Bud Pole. Now, he will start 37th.

With the ruling from NASCAR inspectors that the car was too light, Randy LaJoie was awarded the pole.

His lap of 34.114 seconds around the 1.25 mile, egg-like oval for an average speed of 131.911 in the No. 7 Kleenex Chevrolet gave him his first Bud Pole of the year and seventh of his career.

Actually, it was LaJoie's first Bud Pole since the August race at Bristol in 1997.

"Man, the last time I had a pole was back when were racing Model A cars," LaJoie said. "Hey, I'll take one any way we can get one. I'm starting on the inside now and that's good.

"I didn't do anything a whole lot different than what I did in practice. We were 10th fastest in practice, but the car stayed on the bottom and I was able to pick the throttle up.

"When they came on the radio and told me what I ran, it didn't feel much different than what I did in practice. When you go around this track, get off the brakes and roll through the center well, it works.

"This is good, we haven't qualified well at a shorter track in awhile."

Starting outside of LaJoie will be Ron Hornaday. The second row will be made up of Jason Keller and Tony Raines.

Rounding out the top-10 starters will be Christian Fittipaldi, David Green (qualified the No. 59 Chevrolet for regular driver Stacy Compton), point leader Greg Biffle, Casey Mears, Jamie McMurray and Kenny Wallace.

Hmiel, Sammy Potaschnick, Larry Gunselman, Mike Harmon, Brian Weber, Eric Jones, Ron Young and Eric Edwards took provisionals. Kertus Davis and Drew White failed to make the race.

Jack Sprague spun his Chevrolet on his first qualifying lap and brushed the wall with the left side of the car. He didn't make serious contact -- just enough to crunch up the left-quarter panel some.

"I downshifted going into Turn 1 and the car wheel hopped on me," Sprague said. "I thought I had it saved, but I couldn't get it back. The car was on and off during practice, but it was real good at the end.

"We just have to beat and bang on it a little bit to get it ready for the race. We'll be alright."

After he spun, Sprague slowly drove toward Turns 3 and 4, turned the car around and drove back down the backstretch. He then turned around again and made a running start to gain speed for his second qualifying lap.

Sprague qualified for the race on time in the 26th position.