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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Newman breaks track record while taking pole

Associated Press

CONCORD, N.C. – Ryan Newman’s latest qualifying effort was impressive even by his own standards.

Always a threat to win the pole, the 27-year-old did it again, shattering the track record at Lowe’s Motor Speedway on Thursday night with a lap of 192.988 mph to take the top spot for the Coca-Cola 600.

That effort was nearly 3 mph faster than the mark set last week by Mike Bliss and 4 mph better than what Newman ran last October at the track. Jeff Gordon wound up second after running 191.925, with Matt Kenseth, Kasey Kahne and Jimmie Johnson rounding out the top five.

It was Newman’s fourth pole of the season – he leads the Nextel Cup Series again – and the 31st of his career. In fact, he’s started up front for 24 percent of his 128 starts.

He became the first driver to break the 28-second barrier at the track, clocking a time of 27.981.

“That was a real good lap for me,” Newman said. “I was just trying to break 28 seconds, and we barely did it. If we go faster, that’s fine until safety is a question. We run faster at other tracks, so we’ll see how we do here.”

Lowe’s is the second-fasted track on the circuit, trailing only Atlanta Motor Speedway, where Newman ran 194.690 earlier this season. Texas Motor Speedway is the third on the list, just ahead of Talladega.

Rookie Kyle Busch, who went out 16th, qualified sixth for Sunday’s race and marveled at the lap Newman ran.

“That’s fast, dude,” he said. “That’s blistering fast.”

Dale Earnhardt Jr., with new crew chief Steve Hmiel, was 15th, and defending Cup champ Kurt Busch was 35th.

Take me out of here

Jeff Gordon is used to getting television exposure, but he could have done without this.

On Tuesday, the four-time Cup champ sang “Take Me Out To the Ball Game” at Wrigley Field, and he butchered the lyrics pretty badly.

His effort was played over and over on ESPN and other outlets, and he tried to explain himself after practice for the Coca-Cola 600.

“It was pretty awful, I admit that,” he said. “It really just had everything to do with being in a booth and it’s a lot harder to do than it looks, because the fans are singing and it’s delayed. I just got off of the words and was trying to catch back up and looked like an idiot.”

Martin adds to ‘retirement’

Sure, Mark Martin admitted he probably would come back in 2006 to defend his title in the Nextel All-Star Challenge, despite plans to retire at the end of this season.

Turns out that won’t be the only racing he’ll do. The 46-year-old plans to compete in the truck series, although nothing is final yet.

“I’m 100 percent headed (to) truck racing, but I don’t have any paper signed yet,” Martin said.

Stuck on trucks

The truck series has come a long way since its inception in 1995, and Craftsman has supported it every step of the way. The company plans to be around for little bit longer, announcing it will renew its sponsorship of the series for five more seasons.

With plenty of door-to-door racing and close finishes, the trucks are more popular than ever, with the opener at Daytona producing a 2.1 rating on the Speed Channel to become the highest-rated program in its history.