Lead-foot Newman earns Bud Pole at Chicagoland

JOLIET, Ill. -- Ryan Newman's willingness to test fate in his racecar is duly noted among his peers.

Even they, his lead-footed cohorts, are often taken aback by his fearlessness behind the wheel.

Credit: Autostock

"A guy on the 15 car, when I pulled up after that lap, he just stood there and shook his head," said Newman with a grin. "He was like, 'How do you do that?' It's fun."

Friday, Newman once again out-gunned the field, earning the Bud Pole for Sunday's Tropicana 400 at Chicagoland Speedway with a 29.500-second lap at 183.051 mph.

In like manner to the NASCAR Busch Series qualifying session, Friday's Winston Cup pole speed was far slower than last year's record lap. Todd Bodine holds the track record at 29.393 seconds.

"It doesn't matter what track it is, if you're fast in practice it's always tough to back it up," Newman said. "Fortunately, we were able to duplicate and even make it a little better. I messed up my second lap pretty big, but the first lap was the one that counted for us."

Though his run is impressive, it's far from surprising. Newman is accustomed to starting out front at Chicago. Last year, he started out front in the NASCAR Busch Series affair here, and was running away with the race before he was caught up in an accident late.

STATS • 1st Practice Speeds • Lineup: Tropicana 400

"I've definitely thought about that, we had a really great racecar here last year, but it only takes one little thing to take you out of the equation," Newman said. "We just caught a lapped car wrong last year and it cleaned the left front fender right off the car and it ruined our day.

"We don't necessarily have to redeem ourselves for that, but we're really focused on trying to have a good run."

Kurt Busch narrowly missed his first pole of the year, falling seven-hundredths of a second off of Newman's pace. Though disappointed in not earning the pole, Busch is well aware that starting on the front row is crucial in the quest for much-needed track position.

"That was a good lap," Busch said. "We prepared for it, went for it, but came up just a little bit shy. We put a lot of emphasis on qualifying here because track position is so important. It's so hard to pass here. I was pretty disappointed. I thought we could get the pole."

Bill Elliott will start on the inside of the second row, alongside Sterling Marlin and just ahead of Michael Waltrip.

"That went real well," Elliott said. "The guys kept nipping away at it in practice and it got better and better each run. We just came up a little short. We're getting better though, so if we can keep working on that as the year progresses I think we'll end up well."

Speaking of ending up well, Waltrip continues to impress in the No. 15 Chevrolet. Just two months removed from speculation he would be fired after the season, Waltrip has surged from 27th to 12th in the standings and won last weekend's Pepsi 400 at Daytona.