From GMM
Ryan Newman took page out of Juan Pablo Montoya’s playbook, improved upon it and won his ninth pole at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
To win that pole, the 46th in his career, Newman experimented and, it worked.
“Ultimately it was a great lap,” said Newman who turned a lap of 187.546 mph in a Chevrolet. “I ran the high line, which I've never done in qualifying here before. So it tells you how much things have changed between the tires and the race track and the cars to be able to do something different than I've always done to create that ultimate fast lap.
So, I had a lot of confidence after practice and I watched Montoya have a good (Turn) 1 and 2 and he missed (Turns) 3 and 4. That gave me more hope because I knew he was going to be the benchmark, at least for the overall speed that he put down in practice.”
It didn’t work out so well for the former Formula One driver as Montoya ended up 20th fastest.
Juan Pablo Montoya said the mile-and-a-half oval threw a curve at him. It got actually a little bit tighter for me and that hurt us a little. We had a good balance during the day. But it was just too tight. It is what it is. It doesn't matter. The track got a little bit tight and we didn't adjust enough for it."
Newman, currently one of the fastest drivers on the Sprint Cup circuit explained "the where and the way I ran in practice, we were still two-tenths off of Montoya but we were running his line and he was the quickest car. From my standpoint and looking at it, he was showing us how to do it. And I used his example and fortunately had a great lap.
But I lost a little bit of confidence in my sail when Tony Gibson came on the radio before I went out and said the top five guys ran the bottom. And I'm thinking to myself if you're trying to convince me to run the bottom, I don't appreciate it (laughs) because I'd already made up my mind.
I talked to Jimmie Johnson actually. He asked me and I was going to ask him, but he asked me first. Are you going to run the top or the bottom? The top. I'm going to go for it all. I did. And it paid off. When you feel it's right, you feel it's right. It's probably no different than a baseball player swinging at a pitch. He knows he can hit it. He just hits it and knocks it out of the park."
Kurt Busch, winner of last week’s All-Star race was second quick at 187.292 in a Dodge. "With (car owner)Roger (Penske) on the pole up at Indy, I was trying to deliver a pole down here in Charlotte," said Busch, adding"It was close."
Martin Truex Jr. will start third in a Toyota followed by the Ford of Kasey Kahne.
Reed Sorenson, Max Papis, David Stremme and Mike Bliss failed to qualify.
Ryan Newman took page out of Juan Pablo Montoya’s playbook, improved upon it and won his ninth pole at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
To win that pole, the 46th in his career, Newman experimented and, it worked.
“Ultimately it was a great lap,” said Newman who turned a lap of 187.546 mph in a Chevrolet. “I ran the high line, which I've never done in qualifying here before. So it tells you how much things have changed between the tires and the race track and the cars to be able to do something different than I've always done to create that ultimate fast lap.
So, I had a lot of confidence after practice and I watched Montoya have a good (Turn) 1 and 2 and he missed (Turns) 3 and 4. That gave me more hope because I knew he was going to be the benchmark, at least for the overall speed that he put down in practice.”
It didn’t work out so well for the former Formula One driver as Montoya ended up 20th fastest.
Juan Pablo Montoya said the mile-and-a-half oval threw a curve at him. It got actually a little bit tighter for me and that hurt us a little. We had a good balance during the day. But it was just too tight. It is what it is. It doesn't matter. The track got a little bit tight and we didn't adjust enough for it."
Newman, currently one of the fastest drivers on the Sprint Cup circuit explained "the where and the way I ran in practice, we were still two-tenths off of Montoya but we were running his line and he was the quickest car. From my standpoint and looking at it, he was showing us how to do it. And I used his example and fortunately had a great lap.
But I lost a little bit of confidence in my sail when Tony Gibson came on the radio before I went out and said the top five guys ran the bottom. And I'm thinking to myself if you're trying to convince me to run the bottom, I don't appreciate it (laughs) because I'd already made up my mind.
I talked to Jimmie Johnson actually. He asked me and I was going to ask him, but he asked me first. Are you going to run the top or the bottom? The top. I'm going to go for it all. I did. And it paid off. When you feel it's right, you feel it's right. It's probably no different than a baseball player swinging at a pitch. He knows he can hit it. He just hits it and knocks it out of the park."
Kurt Busch, winner of last week’s All-Star race was second quick at 187.292 in a Dodge. "With (car owner)Roger (Penske) on the pole up at Indy, I was trying to deliver a pole down here in Charlotte," said Busch, adding"It was close."
Martin Truex Jr. will start third in a Toyota followed by the Ford of Kasey Kahne.
Reed Sorenson, Max Papis, David Stremme and Mike Bliss failed to qualify.