Tony Stewart broke up the Ford drivers’ party to win the pole at Charlotte Motor Speedway on Thursday night.
Driving a Chevrolet Stewart averaged 191.959 mph around the mile-and-a-half oval. He surprised himself with that lap.
“That’s a (Ryan) Newman lap,” he said referring to his teammate known for winning poles. Although Tony Stewart has two Cup championships he has only 13 poles in his career.
"I thought we could pick up time (from practice), I knew Ryan would put down a good lap. Took the information he gave us," said Stewart and that’s all he needed to win the pole. "We’ve been pretty solid since we unloaded. That’s all I could do."
The next four drivers (Matt Kenseth, Carl Edwards, AJ Allmendinger and Gregg Biffle) were all in Fords.
Matt Kenseth, who averaged 191.918mph, blamed himself for missing the pole, "I left some out there. I feel bad. I wish I could do it again. I wish somebody would beat me by more because I wouldn’t feel bad about leaving half-a-tenth or something out there, but it was a good, solid lap, a great place to start and I’m looking forward to putting it in race trim tomorrow and seeing what it drives like."
Carl Edwards, the Sprint Cup series points’ leader, was a little surprised to learn that seven of the top-ten cars were Fords. “I didn’t realize that, but our engines run pretty well in the high RPM range. These qualifying laps you keep the engine wound up real hot,” explained Edwards.
Kevin Harvick, who is second in the points, qualified 14th, and five-time champion, Jimmie Johnson, was ninth.
Geoffrey Bodine, Scott Speed, and Josh Wise all failed to make the field.
Driving a Chevrolet Stewart averaged 191.959 mph around the mile-and-a-half oval. He surprised himself with that lap.
“That’s a (Ryan) Newman lap,” he said referring to his teammate known for winning poles. Although Tony Stewart has two Cup championships he has only 13 poles in his career.
"I thought we could pick up time (from practice), I knew Ryan would put down a good lap. Took the information he gave us," said Stewart and that’s all he needed to win the pole. "We’ve been pretty solid since we unloaded. That’s all I could do."
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| Tony Stewart (Photo: Rene Fagnan/Auto123.com) |
The next four drivers (Matt Kenseth, Carl Edwards, AJ Allmendinger and Gregg Biffle) were all in Fords.
Matt Kenseth, who averaged 191.918mph, blamed himself for missing the pole, "I left some out there. I feel bad. I wish I could do it again. I wish somebody would beat me by more because I wouldn’t feel bad about leaving half-a-tenth or something out there, but it was a good, solid lap, a great place to start and I’m looking forward to putting it in race trim tomorrow and seeing what it drives like."
Carl Edwards, the Sprint Cup series points’ leader, was a little surprised to learn that seven of the top-ten cars were Fords. “I didn’t realize that, but our engines run pretty well in the high RPM range. These qualifying laps you keep the engine wound up real hot,” explained Edwards.
Kevin Harvick, who is second in the points, qualified 14th, and five-time champion, Jimmie Johnson, was ninth.
Geoffrey Bodine, Scott Speed, and Josh Wise all failed to make the field.