Food City 500 Qualifying
STEWART-HAAS RACING
Food City 500 Qualifying
Date: March 19, 2010
Event: Food City 500 Qualifying (Round 5 of 36)
Series: NASCAR Sprint Cup Series
Location: Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway (.533-mile oval)
Pole Winner: Joey Logano of Joe Gibbs Racing (15.396 seconds at 124.630 mph)
SHR Lineup: Tony Stewart (11th, 15.569 seconds at 123.245 mph)
Ryan Newman (21st, 15.638 seconds at 122.701 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 Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway by qualifying 11th for Sunday’s Food City 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race. Stewart turned a lap of 15.569 seconds at 123.245 mph on the .533-mile oval.
“That was a good pick-up from practice,” said Stewart, who won at Bristol in August 2001. “The track is still getting ‘rubbered’ in, so we’ll work on it some more tomorrow and get it ready for Sunday.”
Ryan Newman, driver of the No. 39 Haas Automation Chevrolet Impala for SHR, will start 21st after turning a lap of 15.638 seconds at 122.701 mph.
“We definitely made gains with the Haas Automation Chevy from practice to qualifying this afternoon, but I think we still have some work to do tomorrow before Sunday’s race,” said Newman, who has nine top-10 finishes in 16 career Sprint Cup starts at Bristol. “We just didn’t quite have the balance right, and we were still a little free getting into the turns and still a little snug from the middle off. The short tracks were really our strong suit last season, and I expect that we’ll have a really good racecar come Sunday.”
Sophomore driver Joey Logano captured his first career Sprint Cup pole by posting a lap of 15.396 seconds at 124.630 mph. Kurt Busch will start alongside Logano on the outside of row one, as he timed in at 15.492 seconds at 123.857 mph. Dave Blaney was third at 15.493 seconds at 123.849 mph, while Jimmie Johnson (15.497 seconds at 123.818 mph) and Jeff Gordon (15.512 seconds at 123.698 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 Max Papis and Mike Bliss.
As far as manufacturers went, Toyota took the top spot thanks to Logano’s pole. Dodge was next best at the hands of second-quick Busch, while Chevrolet was the third-fastest make thanks to Johnson’s fourth-place run. Matt Kenseth, who qualified seventh, was the top Ford at 15.537 seconds at 123.499 mph.
The Food City 500 gets underway at 1 p.m. EDT on Sunday, March 21 with live coverage provided by FOX beginning with its pre-race show at noon.
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