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Newman takes Texas pole

Ryan Newman smiles after securing the Samsung/Radio Shack 500 pole. (Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)
Associated Press
Ryan Newman smiles after securing the Samsung/Radio Shack 500 pole. (Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)

Ryan Newman almost lost control of his car just before taking the green flag for his qualifying run, and still won another pole.

Newman recovered for a lap of 192.582 mph Friday in Fort Worth, Texas, earning his 30th pole in 123 career races — the highest percentage of pole starts (24 percent) in NASCAR Nextel Cup. It is his third this season, the fourth time he will start on the front row.

“It wasn’t as comfortable as practice. The track heated up quite a bit and made it a hand full,” Newman said. “I actually about lost control coming to the green flag. … We slowed up some, but we didn’t slow up as much as everybody else.”

Newman earned the pole for Sunday’s Samsung/RadioShack 500 on his first qualifying lap in his Dodge. Teammates Jeremy Mayfield (192.431) and Kasey Kahne (191.734), the runner-up in Texas last spring, qualified 2-3 in Dodges. Ricky Rudd was fourth for his first top-10 start.

No resolution

For the first time since Shane Hmiel made an obscene gesture at Dale Jarrett during a Busch race, the drivers were at the same track.

They won’t be racing each other since Jarrett is only running Nextel Cup this weekend, but the garages at Texas Motor Speedway are only about 100 yards apart.

Still, the pair hasn’t spoken.

“I will when I have the opportunity,” said Hmiel, the pole-sitter for today’s O’Reilly 300. “I’m sure he’s still probably pretty mad at me. I had reasons to be mad at him, too.”

Hmiel was fined $10,000 and docked 25 points for flipping his middle finger at Jarrett at Bristol on April 4. The image was caught on his in-car camera and shown on live television.

Bourdais wins IROC race

Champ Car champion Sebastien Bourdais became just the fourth foreign-born driver to win an IROC race, leading the final 22 laps Friday night at Texas after Kurt Busch suffered the same fate that has plagued him in the NASCAR Nextel Cup series.

Busch led nine laps until he apparently cut a tire and slammed hard into the outside wall in the second turn. After starting the Cup season with three straight top-three finishes, Busch has crashed in the last three races.