NEWMAN SWEEPS POLES AT LOWE'S

For the second time in his NASCAR Cup Series career at Lowe's Motor Speedway, Ryan Newman has swept the Bud Pole Award at the 1.5-mile track.

Newman, who went out 45th of 49 drivers in Thursday's "Bojangles Pole Night", posted a lap time of 28.512 seconds – bettering the second-place Jimmie Johnson by 0.061 second; Johnson went out 42nd in qualifying.

"It was a great lap for the Alltel Dodge. Michael Nelson, Travis (Geisler) and the guys from the engineering group did a great job to bring the car off the truck fast," Newman said during his post-qualifying interviews. "We did some scuff runs in race trim; switched the car over to qualifying trim, did two qualifying runs and qualifying was just a matter of beating the 48 car.

"He [Johnson] was the guy to beat in practice, after practice. He had a good draw; we had a tick better draw. I had the advantage of knowing what he ran and I pushed my car to what I thought I needed to. It was a great lap for us. It was smooth. If I had to do it all over again, I’d say I could have done it better, but maybe not. I just look forward to the rest of the weekend after a great start here tonight."

YOU BEAT JIMMIE JOHNSON BY HALF A SECOND. CAN YOU FEEL THAT MUCH DIFFERENCE IN SPEED IN THE RACECAR?

“You can typically feel the speed difference. We picked up over a half a second difference over practice. So, I felt the grip in the car in my out lap through three and four. I had a pretty good one and two. I think I gave up just a tick in three and four. You can have a good sense of it. I’ve had a good sense of it, I thought I had a good sense of it before and be off. Typically here at Charlotte you can feel the speed and it was a great lap for us.”







AS A DRIVER NOT IN THE CHASE, ARE YOU GETTING WHAT YOU CAN GET?

“I don’t look at it that way. I think from my standpoint and the team’s standpoint we have a job to do on qualifying nights. We have a job to do on race days and try to get the car right in practice. Today was all about doing what we had to do to be first. I don’t look at it as what we need to do to create some fame because we’re not in the Chase or anything like that. It’s just a matter of going out and getting the job done. Tonight was a good night for that. Talladega was a good day for that. Jamie Little was asking me what’s the advantage of trying to qualifying so well here. It’s about getting it done in your back yard. It’s about beating everybody their on home turf; that’s what’s the most gratifying of it all.

WOULD THE RACING BE BETTER IF THE CARS WERE SLOWER HERE?

“You would get to a point where the balance wouldn’t matter. The more you slow the cars down the less the balance matters to the point if we all raced rental cars around here we ran wide open we’d all run the exact same speed. The speed is a good thing as long as we’re safe. I would say NASCAR has done a good job policing that at placing like and places like this and places like Daytona and Talladega to make sure the drivers are safe and most importantly the fans are safe.

The run gave Newman his seventh career Bud Pole Award at the North Carolina track and his 42nd overall; it is his fifth pole of the year. Newman also swept the Bud Pole Award in 2003 at LMS.

Newman has swept the pole at the same track four previous times as well; three times at Atlanta Motor Speedway where he won six consecutive Bud Pole Awards from March 2003 until October 2005, and at Texas Motor Speedway in 2005. Newman also has seven poles at Atlanta and is tied with mentor Buddy Baker for the most at the Georgia track. He has the opportunity to break that record at the end of October and sweep yet another track.

Coverage of Saturday's Bank of America 500 at Lowe's Motor Speedway will be broadcast by ABC and PRN radio beginning at 7 p.m. EDT.

Line-up for the Bank of America 500:

1. Ryan Newman, No. 12 Alltel Dodge

2. Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Lowe’s/Kobalt Tools Chevrolet

3. Bobby Labonte, No. 43 Cheerios Racing/Pink for the Cure Dodge

4. Jeff Gordon, No. 24 DuPont Chevrolet

5. Kasey Kahne, No. 9 Mopar/Dodge Dealers/UAW Dodge

8. Kurt Busch, No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge