Blaney sets Toyota pace; Waltrip brings up the rear

JOLIET, Ill. -- This is the tale of two Toyotas.

One, the No. 22 of driver Dave Blaney, turned some heads in the final Saturday practice for Sunday's USG Sheetrock 400 at Chicagoland Speedway. He posted the third-fastest lap of the 43 Nextel Cup competitors to take the track, turning a lap of 177.130 mph that was bettered only by the No. 48 Chevrolet of Jimmie Johnson (177.819) and the No. 1 Chevy of Martin Truex Jr. (177.392).

The other, the No. 55 of driver Michael Waltrip, was the slowest of the 43 cars to make the rounds at Chicagoland on Saturday. His best lap time of 170.342 mph obviously was far off the pace of the top machines.

Blaney said that he felt like his car was good enough that he could have qualified it better on Friday. Even so, he still was the top Toyota qualifier and will start on the inside of Row 8 on Sunday, in the 15th starting position.

"It's a really good car -- and I think the guys made the car better during practice," Blaney said. "I probably should have picked up more than I did -- but you can't go overboard, make a mistake and miss the race, especially with the predicament we're in [being on the bubble of the top 35 in owner points]."

Waltrip struggled mightily to find more speed after qualifying in the 28th position. But after making just three of the season's first 18 races, he was just happy to be in Sunday's show.

Waltrip said that he is using the same car he used in the last race he made -- the Michigan 400 on June 17. Waltrip qualified 18th and finished 10th in that event, even leading one lap. It is his only top-10 finish of the season.

"This is our Michigan car -- the car that we qualified and ran well with at Michigan," he said. "We just didn't have the speed [Saturday] that we had at Michigan.

"At Michigan, I went out to qualify and I knew that if I didn't mess up, I was going to be in the show because I had that type of speed. Here, I had to throw it all out there [in qualifying]. I had to go for it.

"I was able to push the car hard [in qualifying] and it stuck. The motor ran good and everything came together and we got in the show. With our group, I think we're beginning to show better results and I look forward to racing on Sunday."

As slow as Waltrip was in Happy Hour, at least he didn't damage his car and have to go to a backup car, starting in the very rear of the field. That is what happened to Elliot Sadler, whose No. 19 Dodge spun out and sustained heavy damage during the final minutes of practice. (watch video) Sadler had qualified 31st on Friday and was set to start on the inside of Row 16.

In the earlier Saturday morning Cup practice, driver Mark Martin of the No. 01 Chevrolet suffered the same fate as Sadler and also was dispatched to the rear of the field for Sunday's race. (read more in notebook) But he had qualified fourth on Friday and therefore paid a steeper price for his mishap than Sadler did.

Rounding out the top-10 fastest machines in the final practice Saturday -- following the top cars of Johnson, Truex Jr. and Blaney -- were the No. 5 Chevrolet of Kyle Busch (176.696 mph), the No. 17 Ford of Matt Kenseth (176.534), the No. 99 Ford of Carl Edwards (176.252), the No. 38 Ford of David Gilliland (176.194), the No. 24 Chevy of Jeff Gordon (176.137), the No. 29 of Kevin Harvick (175.581) and the No. 66 Chevy of Jeff Green (175.347).

Joining Waltrip at the bottom of the final Saturday time sheet were Ward Burton, Bobby Labonte, Robby Gordon and Chad Chaffin -- the only other drivers whose cars failed to reach 172 mph.