Food City 500 Qualifying
STEWART-HAAS RACING
Food City 500 Qualifying
Date: March 20, 2009
Event: Food City 500 Qualifying (Round 5 of 36)
Series: NASCAR Sprint Cup Series
Location: Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway (.533-mile oval)
Pole Winner: Mark Martin of Hendrick Motorsports (15.256 seconds at 125.773 mph)
SHR Lineup: Ryan Newman (2nd, 15.260 seconds at 125.740 mph)
Tony Stewart (15th, 15.487 seconds at 123.897 mph)
Ryan Newman, driver of the No. 39 U.S. Army Chevrolet Impala SS, led the two-car Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) contingent in time trials at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway by qualifying second for Sunday’s Food City 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race.
Newman became the first SHR driver to score a front-row starting spot in 2009 by clocking in at 15.260 seconds at 125.740 mph, just .004 of a second behind the time of pole-winner Mark Martin.
“Four-thousandths of a second – I think that’s like an inch or something,” said Newman, who set the track qualifying record at Bristol in March 2003 with a time of 14.908 seconds at 128.709 mph. “I thought that I would pick up from where we ran in practice, and I did. It just wasn’t enough after the lap that Mark (Martin) laid down. It was a great effort by the U.S. Army team today. I was happy with the car off the truck. It was fast, and they fine-tuned it during practice and got us on the front row. This is one of the most important races to start up front.
“I think everyone on the U.S. Army team needed this run today. Everyone has been asking me and the guys about our confidence level after the first few races of the season. It’s not like we weren’t confident, we just had some bad racing luck and we needed a break or something good to happen. Once you have something good happen, I think your confidence builds and it can just snowball from there. I’m really happy with starting on the front row. I think Sunday’s race will be interesting. The cars don’t turn each other around as much as they used to, but I really like this track. We were second in practice this morning and second in qualifying. We’d like to improve that by one spot on Sunday. We have 500 laps to figure it out.”
Tony Stewart, driver of the No. 14 Office Depot/Old Spice Impala SS for SHR, qualified 15th. The co-owner of SHR along with Oxnard, Calif.-based Haas Automation – the largest CNC machine tool builder in the western world – turned a lap of 15.487 seconds at 123.897 mph on the .533-mile oval.
“I was happy with it,” said Stewart, who won the August 2001 race at Bristol. “I thought it might be a little bit better than that, but I was a little bit free. I’m really, really proud of our guys. It’s the first time we’ve been to Bristol together and to end up where we ended up, I’m happy with that.
“I’m really, really proud of Ryan and his guys. They needed something to pump them up, and today was that day. I’m just really proud of him and his attitude and how’s he’s keeping his guys pumped up. His attitude is keeping everybody going. Tony Gibson (crew chief) is being a cheerleader with all the guys. I’m just really proud of the whole organization.”
Martin scored his 43rd career pole and his eighth at Bristol with a time of 15.256 seconds at 125.773 mph. Ironically, after failing to win a pole since the 2001 season, Martin has now captured two consecutive poles in 2009, as he also took the top spot two weeks ago at Atlanta Motor Speedway in Hampton, Ga.
Newman will start alongside Martin on the outside of row one, while Jimmie Johnson (15.295 seconds at 125.453 mph), Greg Biffle (15.315 seconds at 125.289 mph) and Kasey Kahne (15.356 seconds at 124.954 mph) rounded out the top-five.
Forty-five drivers attempted to qualify for the Food City 500. Those not making the cut in the 43-car field were Scott Riggs and Jeremy Mayfield.
As far as manufacturers went, Chevrolet took the top three spots thanks to the qualifying efforts of Martin, Newman and Johnson. Ford was next best at the hands of Biffle, while Kahne carried the flag for Dodge. The top Toyota came via sixth-quick David Reutimann (15.374 seconds at 124.808 mph).
The Food City 500 gets underway at 2 p.m. EDT on Sunday, March 22 with live coverage provided by FOX beginning with its pre-race show at 1:30 p.m.
