Newman takes pole for Atlanta race
Ryan Newman, NASCAR’s premier qualifier from his rookie year in 2002 through 2005, piling up 35 poles, slumped to just two last year – none after taking the top qualifying spot at New Hampshire in July.
But Friday night he looked like the speed demon of old, turning a fast lap of 193.124 mph that was nearly 1 1/2 mph faster than runner-up Elliott Sadler’s 191.894 on a cold night at Atlanta Motor Speedway in Hampton, Ga. The Nextel Cup race is Sunday.
The fast lap, besides earning Newman his 38th career pole, gave him his seventh Atlanta pole and ninth front-row start in 10 tries on the fast 1.5-mile oval. Qualifying last fall was rained out and the lineup was set by points, with Newman starting 17th.
Defending Cup champion Jimmie Johnson, coming off a win in Las Vegas, qualified third.
Mark Martin, the series points leader, sat on the pole for nearly half the qualifying session before being bumped by Newman. He wound up fourth, followed by Jeff Gordon, Bobby Labonte, David Stremme and Kyle Busch.
Craftsman Truck Series
Mike Skinner bumped past Clint Bowyer to take the lead on a restart seven laps from the finish and raced away to his second straight victory in NASCAR’s Craftsman Truck Series in Hampton, Ga.
Todd Bodine, the defending series champion and last spring’s winner at Atlanta Motor Speedway, followed Skinner past Bowyer to grab second place on lap 124 of the 130-lap event, but the leader was just too strong, pulling away to a five car-length victory, the 21st of his truck career.
After losing the lead, Bowyer slipped all the way to seventh before rallying to finish fifth behind Matt Crafton and Rick Crawford.
Formula One
At Melbourne, Australia, Kimi Raikkonen took the pole position today for the Australian Grand Prix, the season opener Sunday.
It was Raikkonen’s 12th career pole, but his first in a Ferrari.
AT&T sues NASCAR
Telecommunications giant AT&T sued NASCAR after racing series officials would not let the company put its logo on Jeff Burton’s race car.
Burton’s No. 31 car is sponsored by cell phone service provider Cingular, but AT&T recently took full ownership of Cingular as part of its recent merger with BellSouth and intends to eliminate the brand name.
AT&T spokesman Clay Owen said NASCAR officials repeatedly have not allowed AT&T to switch from a Cingular logo to an AT&T logo because of their deal with Nextel, which sponsors NASCAR’s top series – the Nextel Cup.
He said AT&T filed the lawsuit – which seeks permission to make the logo switch and damages for the “substantial harm” NASCAR has caused to the company – in U.S. District Court in Atlanta.
“We’ve tried to resolve this amicably for months now,” Owen said.
The lawsuit calls altering the design of the No. 31 car an “integral part” of the company’s brand name switch, and that NASCAR’s refusal to allow it inhibits the company’s ability to “attract new customers and retain existing ones.”