No one was more surprised than Tony Stewart himself when the veteran driver put his Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet on the pole for Sunday’s 500 miles at Texas Motor Speedway.
Despite two NASCAR Sprint Cup titles and many wins, Stewart himself confessed that he was a bit amazed at his performance at the one-and-one-half mile oval.
In a career which will span 400 starts when the race is green flagged, Stewart’s last pole came 155 races ago, in 2005, at Martinsville, Va. This was his 11th career pole.
“It didn't seem like the conditions changed a lot today which was unusual. It definitely worked in our favor,” Stewart said, adding: “I'm surprised. I am not much of a qualifier. It shows Darian Grubb [my crew chief] and all the guys at Stewart-Haas how much good hard work they have been doing. Today is a result of that."
Stewart turned a lap of 191.327mph, almost beating another surprise front row starter, Sam Hornish Jr. at 191.232mph. Hornish drives a Penske Racing Dodge.
The former IndyCar star said: “It was a good qualifying run for us for sure. The Mobil 1 Dodge was on the free side which was what we had in practice, but I didn’t want to push that hard. We did make a pretty big jump from where we were in practice. I’m really happy with the effort all the guys are putting in on the car. It makes race days go by a lot easier when you get to start up front.”
Speaking about the possibility of rain during practice on Saturday, he added: “We spent a lot of time today in practice doing our race-run stuff. Obviously, we would like to get the track time tomorrow, but we also know that we spent time today in race runs.
“We know what we have for the race. We just need to keep it from getting so tight throughout the run. If we don’t get practice in tomorrow, I still feel pretty good about what we have as a race car right now because we spent all that time in race trim,” he concluded.
Greg Biffle was the fastest Ford in third place at 190.900mph, while current points leader and four time champion Jimmie Johnson rounded up the second row at 190.880mph.
David Stremme, Terry Cook and Johnny Sauter failed in their attempt to qualify for Sunday's race.
Despite two NASCAR Sprint Cup titles and many wins, Stewart himself confessed that he was a bit amazed at his performance at the one-and-one-half mile oval.
In a career which will span 400 starts when the race is green flagged, Stewart’s last pole came 155 races ago, in 2005, at Martinsville, Va. This was his 11th career pole.
“It didn't seem like the conditions changed a lot today which was unusual. It definitely worked in our favor,” Stewart said, adding: “I'm surprised. I am not much of a qualifier. It shows Darian Grubb [my crew chief] and all the guys at Stewart-Haas how much good hard work they have been doing. Today is a result of that."
Stewart turned a lap of 191.327mph, almost beating another surprise front row starter, Sam Hornish Jr. at 191.232mph. Hornish drives a Penske Racing Dodge.
The former IndyCar star said: “It was a good qualifying run for us for sure. The Mobil 1 Dodge was on the free side which was what we had in practice, but I didn’t want to push that hard. We did make a pretty big jump from where we were in practice. I’m really happy with the effort all the guys are putting in on the car. It makes race days go by a lot easier when you get to start up front.”
Speaking about the possibility of rain during practice on Saturday, he added: “We spent a lot of time today in practice doing our race-run stuff. Obviously, we would like to get the track time tomorrow, but we also know that we spent time today in race runs.
“We know what we have for the race. We just need to keep it from getting so tight throughout the run. If we don’t get practice in tomorrow, I still feel pretty good about what we have as a race car right now because we spent all that time in race trim,” he concluded.
Greg Biffle was the fastest Ford in third place at 190.900mph, while current points leader and four time champion Jimmie Johnson rounded up the second row at 190.880mph.
David Stremme, Terry Cook and Johnny Sauter failed in their attempt to qualify for Sunday's race.