Ryan Newman was happy with his pole run, his third at Bristol, but his team owner, Tony Stewart, was not so happy.
No, it’s not driver envy. Stewart had a problem in qualifying and will start at the back of the field while his driver starts at the front.
After winning his 48th NASCAR Sprint Cup pole some of Newman’s wry humor surfaced when he said: "This is huge. Matt (Kenseth, was third after Carl Edwards) came in here earlier and talked about the emotions and when you start up front, your emotions are pretty calm because you’ve got a lot of things going your way.
"You’re starting in a good position; you’ve got good pit selection, and all those things. I just look forward to the race. It’s a great race to watch flashbulbs going into Turn One. You’ve just got to miss the wall."
Edwards, known as “Concrete Carl” for his success on tracks like Bristol, paved with concrete, narrowly missed winning the pole for Saturday night’s race. He felt he was a little bit too cautious.
"That is all I had so Ryan beat me," Edwards said. "I thought we were going to get the pole. Off turn four I was headed for the fence there and I wasn’t sure, I was kind of doing the odds in my head like if I hit this thing, if I hit the wall with this, would we have time to fix it and how bad would I tear it up. I gave up just a little bit off four there and that was the smart thing to do.@
Still the elephant in the room was the poor effort of Newman’s boss and teammate, Tony Stewart, who said last week he didn’t deserve a spot in the Chase even if he was 10th in the points.
Newman explained: "We’ll sit down and talk, but it was a frustrating day for him, I can tell you that right now. If he was sitting right here, whether he won the pole or not, he would tell you it was a frustrating day for him."
Fourth fastest was Jeff Gordon. T.J. Bell, J.J. Yeley and Jeff Green failed to make the 43-car field.
No, it’s not driver envy. Stewart had a problem in qualifying and will start at the back of the field while his driver starts at the front.
After winning his 48th NASCAR Sprint Cup pole some of Newman’s wry humor surfaced when he said: "This is huge. Matt (Kenseth, was third after Carl Edwards) came in here earlier and talked about the emotions and when you start up front, your emotions are pretty calm because you’ve got a lot of things going your way.
"You’re starting in a good position; you’ve got good pit selection, and all those things. I just look forward to the race. It’s a great race to watch flashbulbs going into Turn One. You’ve just got to miss the wall."
Edwards, known as “Concrete Carl” for his success on tracks like Bristol, paved with concrete, narrowly missed winning the pole for Saturday night’s race. He felt he was a little bit too cautious.
"That is all I had so Ryan beat me," Edwards said. "I thought we were going to get the pole. Off turn four I was headed for the fence there and I wasn’t sure, I was kind of doing the odds in my head like if I hit this thing, if I hit the wall with this, would we have time to fix it and how bad would I tear it up. I gave up just a little bit off four there and that was the smart thing to do.@
Still the elephant in the room was the poor effort of Newman’s boss and teammate, Tony Stewart, who said last week he didn’t deserve a spot in the Chase even if he was 10th in the points.
Newman explained: "We’ll sit down and talk, but it was a frustrating day for him, I can tell you that right now. If he was sitting right here, whether he won the pole or not, he would tell you it was a frustrating day for him."
Fourth fastest was Jeff Gordon. T.J. Bell, J.J. Yeley and Jeff Green failed to make the 43-car field.