AAA Texas 500 Qualifying
STEWART-HAAS RACING
AAA Texas 500 Qualifying
Date: Nov. 5, 2010
Event: AAA Texas 500 Qualifying (Round 34 of 36)
Series: NASCAR Sprint Cup Series
Location: Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth (1.5-mile oval)
Pole Winner: Elliott Sadler of Richard Petty Motorsports (27.636 seconds at 195.397 mph)
SHR Lineup: Tony Stewart (11th, 27.968 seconds at 193.078 mph)
Ryan Newman (14th, 28.071 seconds at 192.369 mph)
Tony Stewart, driver of the No. 14 Office Depot/Old Spice Chevrolet Impala, led the two-car Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) contingent in time trials at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth by qualifying 11th for Sunday’s AAA Texas 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race. Stewart turned a lap of 27.968 seconds at 193.078 mph on the 1.5-mile oval.
“It was a pretty good lap, but I would really like to go re-run it because I changed what I was doing in the car a little bit,” said Stewart, who won the pole for the April race at Texas and won the November 2006 event at the 1.5-mile oval. “Darian (Grubb, crew chief) made an adjustment and the guys did a great job getting the car ready for qualifying. I felt like I left something on the table there. The Office Depot/Old Spice Chevrolet was really, really good. I think we have a good car for this weekend.”
Ryan Newman, driver of the No. 39 Tornados Chevrolet Impala for SHR, will start 14th after turning a lap of 28.071 seconds at 192.369 mph.
“Our Tornados Chevrolet was pretty good today in practice, but we never really knew what we had for qualifying because we never quite got a qualifying lap pieced together in practice earlier today,” said Newman, who won the October 2003 race at Texas and also qualified on the pole for the 2005 spring and fall races. “We picked up speed-wise from practice and I think we probably had a little bit more, but the car just moved around way too much in (turns) three and four. I think we have a pretty good Tornados Chevy here for Sunday.”
Elliott Sadler captured his eighth career Sprint Cup pole, his first of the season and his first at Texas by posting a lap of 27.636 seconds at 195.397 mph. It was Sadler’s first pole in more than four years, with his last pole coming on May 1, 2006 at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway.
Greg Biffle will start on the outside of row one as he timed in at 27.885 seconds at 193.653 mph. Carl Edwards was third (27.886 seconds at 193.646 mph), while Juan Pablo Montoya (27.910 seconds at 193.479 mph) and David Ragan (27.918 seconds at 193.424 mph) rounded out the top-five.
Forty-nine drivers attempted to qualify for the AAA Texas 500. Those not making the cut in the 43-car field were Brian Keselowski, Jeff Green, Josh Wise, Michael McDowell, Scott Riggs and J.J. Yeley.
As far as manufacturers went, Ford took the top-three spots thanks to the runs of Sadler, Biffle and Edwards. Chevrolet was next best at the hands of Montoya, while the top Dodge was sixth-place Kurt Busch (27.925 seconds at 193.375 mph). Carrying the flag for Toyota was 18th-quick David Reutimann (28.141 seconds at 191.891 mph).
The AAA Texas 500 gets underway at 3 p.m. EST on Sunday, Nov. 7 with live coverage of the race provided by ESPN beginning with a pre-race show at 2 p.m.
-SHR-
