Auto racing: Waltrip lands pole position

Michael Waltrip led a charge of “go-or-go-home” entries to the top of the grid Saturday in qualifying for the UAW-Ford 500 at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway.

The top 35 cars in NASCAR Nextel Cup owners points are guaranteed a spot in the 43-car field each week and it was the drivers who had to make it on speed and worked strictly on qualifying in Friday’s practice who dominated in time trials for today’s race, the superspeedway debut of the Car of Tomorrow.

Waltrip, who has struggled through a generally miserable season, managed to make the race lineup for the third straight week, but only the 11th time this season, as he earned his fourth career pole and first since June 2005 at Pocono.

He turned a lap of 189.070 mph on the 2.66-mile oval, with Dave Blaney second at 188.838.

“I felt confident yesterday we would make the race,” Waltrip said. “I wasn’t thinking about the pole. Honestly, it’s more important to me that we have all three (Michael Waltrip Racing) cars in the top eight.”

All of those eight were drivers who had to qualify, including former Formula One champion and Indy 500 winner Jacques Villeneuve, making his Cup debut, and Waltrip’s teammates David Reutimann and Dale Jarrett.

Rookie A.J. Allmendinger, Boris Said, Scott Riggs, Sam Hornish Jr., another open-wheel driver and Indy 500 winner hoping to make his Cup debut, and Jeremy Mayfield qualified ninth, 10th, 11th, 13th and 15th, respectively, but were bumped out of the field by drivers in the top 35 in points.

Craftsman Trucks

Todd Bodine barely held off Rick Crawford and Johnny Benson in a three-wide finish in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at Talladega.

Bodine, the reigning truck champion, was out front for a restart with two laps to go on the 2.66-mile oval, with Crawford and Benson close behind in a single-file line of competitors. It stayed that way until the final corner of the 94-lap race, when Crawford drove high on the steeply banked track and Benson, a former series champion, ducked below Bodine.

That’s the way they drove across the finish line, with Bodine beating Crawford by 0.014 seconds – about the length of a hood. Benson was 0.028 seconds behind the winner, with Jason Leffler, in fourth, also less than a second behind Bodine.