Some name-dropping at Brickyard
INDIANAPOLIS — Two of the most famous surnames in American motorsports — Mears and Earnhardt — sped to the forefront Saturday in qualifying for the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Casey Mears, whose uncle Rick won the Indianapolis 500 four times, smashed the stock-car track record with a lap at 186.293 mph to win a Nextel Cup pole for the second straight week.
And Dale Earnhardt Jr., whose father, Dale, won seven Cup championships and the Brickyard 400 in its second year in 1995, qualified fifth fastest in his No. 8 Chevrolet as he tries to reverse a slump he said hit his team well before he was burned in a crash three weeks ago.
Earnhardt Jr. went out first among 50 cars and ran 184.976 mph to break Kevin Harvick’s year-old stock-car record of 184.343 mph. Ward Burton then ran 185.391 mph to bump Earnhardt Jr. Joe Nemechek and Elliott Sadler topped Earnhardt Jr., but Burton stayed on the pole until Mears’ No. 41 Dodge, the 25th car on the track, went faster.
As the track temperature warmed, nobody could stop Mears from becoming the first driver since Billy Wade in 1964 to win his first two career poles in consecutive races.
“It feels great to hold up the Mears name proud,” said Mears, a 26-year-old driving in his second Cup season in a Dodge owned by longtime Indy-car team owner Chip Ganassi. “This place has created a lot of good fortunes for my family. It’s huge.”
Rick Mears, A.J. Foyt and Al Unser Sr. are the only drivers to win the Indianapolis 500 four times. Rick Mears’ last victory came in 1991, the year he won his sixth 500 pole.
A decade later, Casey Mears came to Indy for qualifying but failed to make the race. He moved to the NASCAR Busch Series the following year and then up into Cup last season, finishing 29th in his initial Brickyard 400 during a disappointing rookie year.
Mears has seven top-10 finishes this year, however, and won his first pole last weekend at Pocono.
Busch wins Kroger 200
Kyle Busch passed up a final pit stop for tires, then held off a charging Johnny Sauter in the closing laps to win the NASCAR Kroger 200 Busch Series race Saturday at Indianapolis Raceway Park in Clermont, Ind.
Sauter, who also finished second in the Craftsman Truck race Friday night, started from the pole, but lost the lead when he pitted after 131 of the 200 laps.
He dropped back to 14th but steadily worked his way back toward the front. Then when Greg Biffle and David Green took their final pit stops, Busch stayed on the track and inherited the lead he kept for the final 44 laps.
Sauter moved up during a series of cautions and passed Jason Leffler for second place with 22 laps left.
Bourdais earns fourth pole
Sebastien Bourdais is perfect as the pole-sitter this season. He hopes to keep it that way at the Grand Prix of Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wis.
Bourdais posted a top speed of 141.420 mph, winning his fourth pole of the season and bumping Ryan Hunter-Reay into the second spot for the race today. Hunter-Reay took it easy after qualifying for the front row with a provisional speed of 140.246 mph on Friday.
Jimmy Vasser, the oldest driver on the Champ Car circuit at 38, earned his first top-three start since winning the pole at Long Beach in 2002 with a speed of 140.972.