Newman makes rare appearance on pole

Ryan Newman won the pole Friday at New Hampshire International Speedway. No kidding.

Newman winning NASCAR Nextel Cup poles used to be such a regular occurrence that it was surprising when he didn’t get the job done in qualifying.

He came into the 2006 season with 35 poles in his first five seasons – far more than any other Cup driver during the same period. But NASCAR’s “Rocketman” has fizzled most of this season, winning just one pole in the first 18 races.

Worse, his performance in the races has been just as disappointing. Newman, who has never finished outside the top 10 in his Cup career, is 18th in the points and all but eliminated from contention for the Chase for the championship.

“It’s been very difficult, frustrating,” Newman said after posting a lap of 129.683 mph in qualifying at the Loudon, N.H. track for Sunday’s Lenox Industrial Tools 300.

Jeff Burton was the runner-up at 129.651, followed by Brian Vickers at 129.626, Kyle Busch at 129.485, defending race winner Tony Stewart at 129.024, series points leader Jimmie Johnson at 128.994 and Jeff Gordon, last week’s winner at Chicagoland Speedway, at 128.976.

After starting 12th and finishing 36th last week, Newman was thankful for a good day on the 1-mile New Hampshire oval.

“Things have just clicked for us at this track,” said Newman, whose No. 12 Penske Racing South Dodge has two wins and four poles here. “That used to happen in Charlotte and it used to happen in Dover, but not lately.”

Gordon, Kenseth still at odds

Jeff Gordon apologized to Matt Kenseth – sort of.

Kenseth accepted – sort of.

Kenseth said the two former NASCAR champions spoke briefly on Tuesday during a test session in Indianapolis, but the face-to-face meeting apparently did little to settle their differences.

“He almost acted like he was mad a me,” said Kenseth, spun out by Gordon late in last Sunday’s NASCAR Nextel Cup race at Chicagoland Speedway.

Asked about Kenseth’s comments, Gordon shrugged and said, “I did all I could. I pretty much left it up to him.”

Kenseth had dominated the Chicagoland race. But Gordon, who obviously had the faster car in the closing laps, got impatient and tried to get past with four laps to go by bumping Kenseth up the track. The result was a spinout at about 180 mph for Kenseth and a victory for Gordon.

Since it was Kenseth who spun out Gordon on the way to a third-place finish earlier this season in Bristol, payback was the immediate thought.

Gordon insisted it was simply hard racing, saying he only tried to move Kenseth up the track, not to spin him.

Indy Racing League

Dan Wheldon made sure he will start in front of Marlboro Team Penske rival Sam Hornish Jr..

Wheldon turned a lap of 203.293 mph at Nashville Superspeedway in Gladeville, Tenn., and won the pole for tonight’s Firestone Indy 200, making him the first IndyCar Series driver with consecutive poles this season.

Hornish, who passed Wheldon on the white flag lap and won at Kansas two weeks ago, just missed on his fourth pole this season. The series points leader instead will start beside Wheldon on the front row.

Wheldon, the defending series champion, ranks fourth in the points race, 43 points behind Hornish.

Formula One

Juan Pablo Montoya could race in Formula One this season after all. The Colombian driver left the McLaren team this week after announcing that he was switching to NASCAR next season. McLaren chief Ron Dennis said that Montoya is still a McLaren employee and could be back this season.