Rain washes out Pocono qualifying
Tony Stewart won at Pocono Raceway this season from the rear of the field. He gets to try it this time from the pole.
Rain washed out Sprint Cup qualifying on Friday at Long Pond, Pa., putting Stewart on the pole and giving the points leader a shot at sweeping the races on the triangle track from worst and first.
“You don’t have to be on the pole to win here,” Stewart said. “It’s obviously a lot easier if you can start up front and don’t have to pass 42 cars to get there. It’s not a deal-breaker if you have to start 43rd. We proved that last time.”
Qualifying for the June’s race at Pocono also was rained out and Stewart was awarded the pole. He wrecked the next day in practice, forcing him to the back of the field. Smoke responded with his first Cup points race victory as owner/driver.
Stewart holds a 192-point lead in the points standings over last week’s winner, Jimmie Johnson.
“I don’t know how I could ask for any more,” Stewart said. “I’d love to have five wins like Mark (Martin) has, but other than that, I’m extremely satisfied with what we’ve done.”
Stewart’s win at Pocono made him the first owner/driver to win a race since Ricky Rudd at Martinsville in 1998.
Jeff Gordon, Kurt Busch and Carl Edwards round out the top five. Denny Hamlin, Stewart’s teammate Ryan Newman, Kasey Kahne, Martin and Juan Pablo Montoya complete the top 10.
Only 43 teams are at the track, so every car qualifies for Sunday’s race.
Dixon awarded pole
Drainage problems from a series of storms this week wiped out qualifying for today’s IndyCar race at Sparta, Ky.
The IRL set the 23-car field. Season points leader Scott Dixon will start from the pole, with Target Chip Ganassi teammate Dario Franchitti starting on the outside of Row 1.
A series of storms this week dumped more than five inches of rain on the track, and water kept seeping through the concrete throughout the day. Crews spent most of the day scrambling to keep the track dry.
Dixon won last year’s race at Kentucky when Helio Castroneves ran out of gas on the final lap.
Schumacher fits right in
Michael Schumacher was back in the cockpit of a Formula One car – and it felt good.
The seven-time F1 champion borrowed an old Ferrari to test his form ahead of a comeback to F1 as substitute driver for Felipe Massa, injured last Saturday during a qualifying run at the Hungarian Grand Prix.
Meanwhile, Massa’s doctor says the Formula One driver will return home to Brazil on Monday from Budapest, Hungary.
Around the track
The IndyCar series will begin the 2010 season in Brazil on March 14, though it has yet to pick a site. … There’s no Detroit Belle Isle Grand Prix this year, and organizers say the troubled economy means the race is off again in 2010. … Officials from Speedway Motorsports Inc. and Lowe’s insist they are still talking in the wake of a report that the home improvement chain is ending its sponsorship of SMI’s flagship track.