Practice crash sends Stewart to the rear
Forced to go to a backup car for Sunday's race, Stewart must drop to the rear before the field takes the green flag. The backup car is chassis No. 450, which Stewart drove to a 26th-place finish (his worst of the year) at Las Vegas.
By Reid Spencer
Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service
LONG POND, Pa.--Friday's qualifying rainout gave Sprint Cup points
leader Tony Stewart the top starting spot for Sunday's Pocono 500.
A Saturday practice crash in Turn 2 at Pocono Raceway took the position
away.
The rear end of Stewart's No. 14 Chevrolet stepped out as he entered
Tunnel Turn (Turn 2) during the first Cup practice session Saturday
morning. Stewart slid through the infield grass at the exit of the
corner and damaged the front end of his car so severely that it could
not be repaired in time for the final session.
Forced to go to a backup car for Sunday's race, Stewart must drop to
the rear before the field takes the green flag. The backup car is
chassis No. 450, which Stewart drove to a 26th-place finish (his worst
of the year) at Las Vegas.
"I went off into the grass, but I hit the right front of the splitter
with, I guess, one of those access roads or something and ripped the
whole nose off of it," Stewart said. Before the incident, Stewart had
posted the third fastest time in the first practice. After switching to
the backup car for Happy Hour, he was sixth fastest in the session.
"This car will be good," Stewart promised.
PRACTICE IS A GOOD PREDICTOR AT POCONO
Practice times on Saturday often don't provide an accurate indication
of who will be fast on Sunday. Greg Biffle says Pocono is an exception
-- and he's happy about it.
"We think the track is going to be pretty similar tomorrow, maybe a
little slicker than it is now," Biffle said Saturday after posting the
third fastest time in final Cup practice. "So I really feel like these
times are going to translate over to (Sunday).
"The guys are pretty happy with the lap times. ... They think we have a
top-five car, and that's good for us here. The car's handling decent.
We'll look to see if we can improve it at all for (Sunday) and be ready
to go."
Biffle's only top-five finish in 12 starts at Pocono came in 2004.
SHORT STROKES
Robby Gordon will be joining Stewart at the rear of the field for the
start of Sunday's race, but not because of a car or engine change.
Gordon was in and around Ensenada, Mexico on Saturday, competing with
co-driver Andy Grider in the Baja 500
