Heluva Good! at The Glen Qualifying from Watkins Glen
Heluva Good! at The Glen Qualifying
Date: Aug. 7, 2009
Event: Heluva Good! at The Glen Qualifying (Round 22 of 36)
Series: NASCAR Sprint Cup Series
Location: Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International (11-turn, 2.45-mile road course)
Pole Winner: Jimmie Johnson of Hendrick Motorsports (71.340 seconds at 123.633 mph)
SHR Lineup: Ryan Newman (6th, 71.911 seconds at 122.652 mph)
Tony Stewart (13th, 72.376 seconds at 121.864 mph)
Ryan Newman, driver of the No. 39 U.S. Army/Haas Automation Chevrolet Impala SS, led the two-car Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) contingent in time trials at Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International by qualifying sixth for Sunday’s 23rd running of the Heluva Good! at The Glen NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race. Newman turned a lap of 71.911 seconds at 122.652 mph on the 11-turn, 2.45-mile road course.
“It was a pretty good lap even though the car was a little free in turns nine, 10 and 11,” said Newman, who finished second at The Glen in 2002. “What’s encouraging is that in practice today we were better in race trim than in qualifying trim. This is a fun place to race as you can hustle the car through the turns. We just need to stay clean on Sunday and bring home a strong finish.”
Tony Stewart, driver of the No. 14 Old Spice/Office Depot Chevrolet Impala SS for SHR, will start 13th after turning a lap of 72.376 seconds at 121.864 mph.
“We have a little work to do. We’re just fighting the same thing everybody else is fighting today – trying to get tightened up,” said Stewart, who has four wins at The Glen (2002, 2004, 2005 and 2007). “We worked mainly on the race setup. Darian (Grubb, crew chief) likes to work more on qualifying setup and I like to work more on race setup, so we split the difference. Our car was good today. I was pretty happy with it in race trim, but we didn’t quite get as much time in qualifying trim as we would’ve liked.”
Jimmie Johnson captured his 20th career Sprint Cup pole, his first of the season and his first at Watkins Glen by posting a lap of 71.340 seconds at 123.633 mph.
Kurt Busch will start alongside Johnson on the outside of row one, as he timed in at 71.348 seconds at 123.619 mph. Denny Hamlin was third (71.653 seconds at 123.093 mph), while Marcos Ambrose (71.681 seconds at 123.045 mph) and David Stremme (71.810 seconds at 122.824 mph) rounded out the top-five.
Forty-six drivers attempted to qualify for the Heluva Good! at The Glen. Those not making the cut in the 43-car field were Joe Nemechek, Brian Simo and David Gilliland.
As far as manufacturers went, Chevrolet took the top spot thanks to the pole-wining effort of Johnson. Dodge was next best at the hands of Busch, while Toyota was the third-fastest make thanks to Hamlin. Greg Biffle, who qualified seventh, was the top Ford at 71.989 seconds at 122.519 mph.
The Heluva Good! at The Glen gets underway at 2 p.m. EDT on Sunday, Aug. 9 with live coverage provided by ESPN beginning with its pre-race show at 1 p.m.
