Newman wins pole for Chevrolet 400

None of the 20 poles Ryan Newman has won in his short NASCAR career are as important as the one he earned Friday at Richmond (Va.) International Speedway.

Newman will start tonight’s Chevrolet 400 from the front spot, the perfect place to be for the last event before NASCAR resets the field and begins the 10-race playoff.

Newman, who qualified first with a lap at 128.700 mph in his No. 12 Dodge, is currently in eighth place in the standings. But he’s clinging to that spot, and the slightest mishap could send him spiraling out of the top 10 and disqualify him from racing for the Nextel Cup title.

“Not knowing how the race is going to start, it could be the most important pole we’ve had if there’s a big crash in the middle of the field on the first lap or something crazy like that,” Newman said.

Mark Martin, currently holding the 10th and final spot in the race for the chase, qualified second with a lap at 127.407 mph in the No. 6 Ford.

Martin, an infamous pessimist who has finished second in the championship standings four times, must be flawless tonight to get into the title hunt.

He’s got just a 25-point lead over Jamie McMurray, and Bobby Labonte, Dale Jarrett, Jeremy Mayfield and Kevin Harvick are all mathematically eligible to crack the top 10.

NASCAR begins its new points system at the conclusion of tonight’s race.

The top 10 in the standings, and anyone within 400 points of the leader, will have their points total reset into five-point increments.

Carpentier saves provisional pole

A cloud of dirt billowed from Patrick Carpentier’s tires, and the Canadian driver had thoughts of losing his fast lap as he fishtailed through the sand at 150 mph.

Carpentier swerved several times, narrowly missing a low concrete wall jutting toward the track at the end of the third turn sandtrap as he made his last qualifying lap around the Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca road course at Monterey, Calif. But he pulled back onto the asphalt and drove on, keeping his top lap and taking the provisional pole for Sunday’s Bridgestone Grand Prix of Monterey.

Current Champ Car World Series leader Sebastien Bourdais wound up second at 1:10.130 (114.884) and Tracy third at 1:10.214 (114.746).

Gordon wins first Busch race

Robby Gordon went from third to first in a three-car battle with 15 laps to go and held off Casey Atwood’s charge the rest of the way for his first NASCAR Busch Series victory at Richmond, Va.

Gordon, running third as Atwood and series leader Martin Truex Jr. dueled for the lead on the 235th lap, slid under both for the lead when Truex’s Chevrolet wiggled into Atwood’s, sending both wide in the turn.

Atwood regained his command and quickly pulled up onto Gordon’s bumper, but Gordon repeatedly closed off Atwood’s favored outside lane on lap after lap and won the Emerson Radio 250 by 0.177 seconds.

“Sometimes you have races won and they slip away, and sometimes you’re in position to collect a victory like we did tonight,” Gordon said.

The victory came in his 23rd career start in the Busch Series.

Truex was third, followed by Jason Leffler, Kyle Busch, Mike Bliss and Kevin Harvick, giving Chevrolet the top seven spots.

David Stremme, in a Dodge, finished eighth to end the Chevy run.