Stewart claims first Daytona pole
Tony Stewart seems to run better when he’s surrounded by a little controversy.
Stewart won the pole for the Pepsi 400 on Friday, two days after an altercation with a fan at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Fla.
He downplayed the incident after qualifying.
“It’s a pretty petty deal,” Stewart said. “It’s not something that we’re even worried about. We’ve discarded it already.”
Stewart covered the 2 1/2 -mile superspeedway at 185.582 mph, slightly faster than Scott Riggs and Jimmie Johnson. Boris Said and Joe Nemechek, both teammates with Riggs, rounded out a top-five sweep for Chevrolet.
Elliott Sadler was sixth-fastest in a Ford, followed by the Chevys of Kevin Harvick and Jason Leffler and Rusty Wallace’s Dodge. Kerry Earnhardt’s fast lap gave Chevy eight of the top 10 spots in the field of 43.
Daytona 500 champion Jeff Gordon qualified 15th. Nextel Cup points leader Greg Biffle was 18th. Dale Earnhardt Jr. continued his season-long slump and wound up 39th.
Stewart, meanwhile, won his first pole of the season and his first at Daytona.
Busch series
Martin Truex Jr., driving a car partially owned by Dale Earnhardt Jr., passed Kevin Harvick with four laps remaining and held on after a late restart to win the Winn-Dixie 250 at Daytona International Speedway.
“As long as I was leading, I was in good shape,” Truex said.
The reigning Busch series champion won his first race at Daytona and extended his lead in the series standings to 71 points over Clint Bowyer. Reed Sorenson finished 20th and dropped to third in the standings.
He led a race-high 67 laps in his Chevrolet and won for the fourth time this season. Nextel Cup points leader Greg Biffle was third, followed by Kenny Wallace and Bowyer.
Paul Menard, Joe Nemechek, Mike Wallace, Jason Leffler and Tony Raines rounded out the top 10.
NASCAR trucks
Kelly Sutton is poised to enter the record book in NASCAR’s Craftsman Truck series. What she really wants is to make its list of successful drivers.
Sutton, diagnosed with multiple sclerosis at 16 and sponsored by the company that makes her medication, will make her 33rd career start in the series at Kansas Speedway at Kansas City, Kan.
Earning her first top-10 finish will be a challenge, though. Sutton qualified 32nd in the O’Reilly Auto Parts 250.
“I think the truck will come to me during the race,” she said. “We’ve built in some adjustability.”
Bill Lester won his second career pole, averaging a track-record 173.633 mph on the 1 1/2 -mile tri-oval.
Lester’s teammate, Mike Skinner, qualified second with a quick lap of 173.138 in his Toyota. Todd Kluever will start third in a Ford, with David Reutimann’s Toyota on the outside of the second row.
Jack Sprague, Robert Huffman, Jimmy Spencer, Brandon Whitt, Ted Musgrave and Todd Bodine rounded out the top 10. Of the 36 qualifiers, 31 broke the previous track record of 166.323.
Formula One
All Formula One cars practiced for the French Grand Prix at Magny Cours, France, two weeks after 14 cars boycotted the U.S. Grand Prix because of concerns about tire safety.
The sport’s governing body found the seven teams guilty of wrongfully refusing to race at Indy. Punishment will be announced in September.
Pedro de la Rosa of McLaren-Mercedes led both sessions on the 2.74-mile Magny Cours circuit. There are two practice sessions today and qualifying leading to Sunday’s 70-lap race.