Mayfield bites back, sets Dover qualifying record

This time, Jeremy Mayfield finished ahead of Ryan Newman, knocking him off the pole with a record-setting qualifying run Friday at Dover (Ill.) International Speedway.

Mayfield hounded Newman last September but lost a close race on The Monster Mile. That gave Newman a sweep of the races last year on the high-banked concrete oval.

But it was no contest in qualifying Friday for the MBNA 400. Mayfield’s Dodge went 161.522 mph. Newman got around in 160.643 in his Dodge to take the outside of the front row.

“This is probably the sweetest pole I’ve ever gotten,” Mayfield said “It was a great.

“I just wanted to back up my time in practice.”

It was the eighth pole of Mayfield’s career and first this season. On Sunday, he’ll seek to end a 129-race drought with his fourth victory. Mayfield hasn’t won since 2000.

Newman’s lap shattered the qualifying record of teammate Rusty Wallace, who went 159.954 in 1999.

“I said it wasn’t a perfect lap when we ran it,” Newman said. “Jeremy had pretty close to a perfect lap.”

Wallace qualified fourth with a run at 160.214.

Inside Wallace on the second row will be rookie Brian Vickers, who went 160.521. He won here last September in the Busch series.

Completing the top 10 were Brendan Gaughan, Elliott Sadler, Mark Martin, Michael Waltrip, Jamie McMurray and Tony Stewart.

Green wins first pole of season

David Green drove an untested car to a NASCAR Busch series qualifying record for Dover International Speedway, winning his first pole of the season.

Green hustled his Chevrolet around The Monster Mile at 157.916 mph. That easily surpassed Joe Nemechek’s year-old Busch record of 156.747 on the high-banked concrete oval.

The pole run was the 22nd for Green, the 1994 series champion. He’ll seek his ninth career victory today in the MBNA 200.

“We brought a brand new Monte Carlo here for the first time,” he said. “The car had not been on a track until 9 o’clock this morning.”

Sauter got around at 157.846. Jason Leffler made it a Chevy sweep of the top three spots with a run of 157.522.

Indy’s oval changes to road course

Almost as soon as one race ended, Indianapolis Motor Speedway crews began preparing for another in the quickest turnaround between major events in the track’s 95-year history.

The U.S. Grand Prix was moved from late September to the third week of June this year, giving the track three races in a span of 10 weeks. That cut the time available to change the oval used for the Indianapolis 500 to a road course for Formula One and then back to an oval for the NASCAR Brickyard 400 in August.

“This year is a new challenge because of the turnaround time, but last year we knew at the time of the Brickyard 400 that we’d be dealing with a short window this year,” speedway spokesman Ron Green said. “The crews practiced and worked up a pretty detailed schedule of what needed to be done, and when, to make this year’s transition go smoothly.”

The accelerated schedule for changing the track from the 2 1/2 -mile oval was to have begun Sunday night, right after the 500, but severe thunderstorms that night prevented any work until Monday.

Since then, crews have put up one of two new temporary grandstands, and plan to begin working on the second grandstand soon. The 13-turn, 2.6-mile road course incorporates the south end and most of the front straightway of the existing speedway oval, but crews must remove walls where the cars enter and leave the infield section of the road course.

“Teams will begin arriving on the 14th, and the facility will be ready for them,” Green said.

Chaffin gets first truck win

Chad Chaffin took the lead during a caution period and held on over the last 52 laps at Dover International Speedway for his first victory in the NASCAR truck series.

Chaffin is the sixth different winner in the first six races – a series record.

Chaffin averaged 98.996 mph in a race slowed for 42 laps by six cautions. There were four lead changes among four drivers.