Pruett captures pole; Contreras second
Scott Pruett won the pole for today’s Telcel-Motorola 200 in Mexico City, the third race south of the border in NASCAR’s Busch Series.
Pruett averaged 103.647 mph on his fastest lap Saturday in the No. 41 Dodge on the 2.518-mile Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez course.
Mexico City native Carlos Contreras was second at 103.407 mph in a 22 Dodge, and Juan Pablo Montoya, the Colombian star who jumped from Formula One to NASCAR last season, qualified third at 103.391 mph in a Dodge. Montoya finished first in Friday’s practice and blamed changes in his car for his third place Saturday.
“Yesterday the car had really good balance and today they made some changes and the car became really tight,” Montoya said. “I told them we shouldn’t make the changes but they said it will be better. I guess it wasn’t.
“Things like that will happen and it’s quite a learning curve. But hopefully we have a decent chance of winning tomorrow.”
Mexican Jorge Goeters, the pole winner in 2005, was fourth at 103.203.
The 46-year-old Pruett said his road-course expertise should give him the edge.
“I’ve had experience on road courses, which will give me a bit of an advantage. As long we do things smart and make the right calls on stops we’ve got a shot to win it,” Pruett said. “Our car is running good and we are going to just keep doing what we are doing.”
Contreras was ecstatic about his performance.
“I don’t believe it. I’m very happy. Can you see my face, my smile?” Contreras said. “Respects to Scott. You beat me man. You’re fast. But tomorrow is a different day. There are different strategies and there are 80 laps not one.”
Defending champion Denny Hamlin qualified fifth.
‘BP’ to be remembered
The Nicorette 300 Busch Series race at Atlanta Motor Speedway on March 17 will be dedicated to the memory of NASCAR great Benny Parsons, who died last month from complications of lung cancer.
In celebration of “BP,” the Parsons family will be honored and recognized as Grand Marshals of the race. Parsons’ brother, Phil Parsons, a former Cup driver and current Speed TV broadcaster, will represent the family at the race.
A year ago, Benny Parsons was one of six NASCAR greats to serve as Grand Marshals of the race. Parsons was a former smoker.
To honor Parsons’ life, fans attending the race will take part in a “Celebration of BP” during prerace ceremonies. A special video montage featuring highlights from Parsons’ racing and broadcasting career has been prepared, as well as memories from many of his friends within NASCAR.
Cup, Busch, and Craftsman Truck Series cars will carry a special “BP-72” contingency sticker throughout the weekend to remember 1973 series champion Parsons and his car number.
Evernham chiefs watch
Former crew chief Ray Evernham has watched all three of his Cup teams have to make do without their regular crew chiefs so far this season, thanks to the big cheating scandal in Daytona. The owner of Evernham Motorsports says different teams handle losing their leader in different ways.
“I think the technology and the strength of the driver has something to do with it, and the depth of the team,” Evernham said. “I think certain teams can overcome it and other teams struggle a little bit with it.
“Our No. 9 team (Kasey Kahne) seemed to overcome it, had a little bit more depth, and we struggled a little bit with the 10 (Scott Riggs) and 19 (Elliott Sadler).
“They got Kasey happy with his car on Friday, Saturday and Sunday and we couldn’t get Scott or Elliott happy with theirs,” Evernham added. “Ill take responsibility for that because I was working on the 19 car. Again, I think it’s up to the team. When you take a key player out of a team in any sport it’s got to affect it somewhat.”
Stat of the week
With Jimmie Johnson’s streak of 105 straight races in the top 10 in points ending in the season-opening Daytona 500, the new leader for consecutive races in the top 10 is Mark Martin with 37.