Busch on Watkins Glen pole; Biffle crashes
Kurt Busch and Kasey Kahne did what they had to do. Greg Biffle didn’t, and now faces a difficult road ahead.
Busch won his second straight road course pole on Friday, wheeling his No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge through the 11-turn Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International course at 122.966 mph to knock Kahne (121.845 mph) to second.
It was the third pole of the season for Busch and sixth of his career, and it came only moments after Biffle crashed on his qualifying try, relegating him to the back of the 43-car field.
Ryan Newman qualified third (121.642 mph), just ahead of four-time Watkins Glen winner Jeff Gordon (121.432 mph).
Series leader Jimmie Johnson and Robby Gordon, who won this race in 2003, will start on the third row, Kevin Harvick and defending race champion Tony Stewart will go seventh and eighth, Kyle Busch and rookie Denny Hamlin round out the top 10, and Dale Earnhardt Jr. will go 11th.
•Jeremy Mayfield, the driver of the No. 19 Dodge for Evernham Motorsports, has been terminated, owner Ray Evernham said.
“It was purely performance,” Evernham said. “The car and the team is not where it should be to represent sponsors. We’re out of the top 35 in points now. We just haven’t delivered as a group.”
Champ Car
A.J. Allmendinger guaranteed himself a spot on the front row of the Grand Prix of Denver by turning in the fastest time (1:00.714) during the qualifying session. Sebastien Bourdais, who’s won the last two Grand Prix of Denver races, finished in second position (1:00.763) and Alex Tagliani was third (1:00.988). The race is Sunday.
IRL
Danica Patrick didn’t want to be the next Sarah Fisher any more than Fisher wanted to be the next Lyn St. James.
But there will be no avoiding the comparisons today during qualifying for Sunday’s Meijer Indy 300 at Kentucky Speedway in Sparta, Ky., where Fisher and Patrick, a pair of young Indy-car drivers, will be on the same track in the same kind of race car at the same time for the first time in their lives.
Fisher and Patrick will become only the second set of women to compete in the same Indy-car race when the green flag is waved to start the race. Fisher and St. James both drove in the 2000 Indianapolis 500.
The scenario was created last week when Fisher, 25, landed her first Indy-car ride in more than two years, a one-race deal with her former team, Dreyer & Reinbold Racing. Patrick, 24, joined the Indy Racing League last year, picking up where Fisher left off.
Before Patrick burst on the scene with all the splash of a Hollywood star, Fisher was the IRL’s darling before her career declined.