Earnhardt on pole
Dale Earnhardt Jr. ended a stretch of nearly five years without qualifying in first thanks in part to a well-timed rain shower.
Earnhardt won his first pole since September 2002 with a lap of 169.975 mph and took the top spot Friday at Pocono Raceway in Long Pond, Pa., a huge benefit for a driver clinging to the final spot in the Chase.
“I try to get them, man, but they’re hard to get,” he said. “I don’t put a lot of emphasis on poles. I probably do that that because I don’t get them so often.”
His lap after a 45-minute rain delay nudged Kurt Busch into second with a lap of 169.863 and Kyle Busch was third at 169.782. Earnhardt guessed his car would have qualified between fifth and 12th had it not rained.
Earnhardt had just put his No. 8 Chevrolet on the track for his qualifying lap for Sunday’s 500-mile race when it started raining. Once it stopped, Earnhardt took advantage of the cooler temperatures and raced to his seventh career pole and first since Sept. 29, 2002, at Kansas Speedway – a span of 171 races.
Now all he needs is a win. Earnhardt has been without a victory since May 2006 at Richmond.
“Qualifying and racing are two different things,” Earnhardt said. “Qualifying takes a different kind of discipline, takes a lot of guts.”
Earnhardt needs all the strong finishes he can get in the final six races of the Nextel Cup “regular season.” He holds the 12th and final spot for the 10-race Chase. He has a 36th- and 34th-place finish in two of his last three races, and more results like that will hurt his chances significantly.
“The one thing you do feel is more of a loss of confidence,” Earnhardt said. “I feel like we keep the momentum by keeping the good attitude.”
Kyle Busch trails Junior by 13 points for 12th place. Kurt and Kyle Busch each have four top-five starts this season.
Ryan Newman and Kasey Kahne rounded out the top five. Points leader Jeff Gordon was 11th.
“I think I gave it up,” Newman said. “I just didn’t push quite hard enough in turn three. I was more worried about the car stepping out then I was pushing it fast.”
NASCAR debuts in Canada
Lightning flashed and the fans in the aluminum grandstands never flinched. NASCAR was finally in front of them, and it would take more than a storm to drive them away.
Stock cars roared into Canada this weekend for NASCAR’s first foray north of the border, and early indications are this inaugural debut will be an unqualified success.
Jeff Gordon, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Tony Stewart aren’t in the field for today’s Busch Series event in Montreal. But NASCAR chairman Brian France doesn’t believe his biggest stars are needed to sell stock cars in a nation where open-wheel racing dominates.
“I think Canadian fans are a pretty good judge of what is exciting racing and we think, when it’s all said and done, we’re going to be able to give them that,” France said. “When they watch a Formula One race, lead changes are either nonexistent or nonimportant. We have a whole different philosophy that we are going to present.”
Formula One
Defending world champion Fernando Alonso posted the fastest time in practice at the Hungarian Grand Prix in Budapest.
Alonso timed 1 minute, 20.919 seconds in his McLaren on the twisting 2.72-mile Hungaroring circuit to lead Renault’s Heikki Kovalainen.
Lewis Hamilton, Alonso’s teammate and overall standings leader, was third.