Newman ends pole drought despite rain
By Dan Gelston, The Associated Press
June 2, 2006
07:09 PM EDT (23:09 GMT)




DOVER, Del. (AP) -- Ryan Newman thought a little rain might extend his pole drought.

Instead, the rain only delayed the wait and didn't keep Newman from putting himself on the pole for the first time this season with a lap of 154.633 mph Friday at Dover International Speedway.

Newman now has a 36 career poles in 165 starts -- but none of them had come this year, breaking a 14-race streak without one. Rain interrupted the qualifying session and could have wiped out the lap had it continued. Newman browsed for old race car parts on e-Bay, worrying that his spot would not stand.

"That was my initial feeling," he said. "That was definitely a big gainer. Mother Nature did work out for us."

Jeremy Mayfield joins him on the front row for Sunday's race after a lap of 154.361. Jeff Gordon was third at 154.063 and Kurt Busch fourth at 153.774.

"I thought we were going to be closer to Ryan, but Ryan put up a great number and a really fast lap," Gordon said.

Nextel Cup points leader Jimmie Johnson starts a season-worst 48th, but it could have been a whole lot worse.

Johnson lost control of his No. 48 Chevrolet as he finished his first qualifying lap, with the car spinning out of control. Remarkably, Johnson maintained his control, putting the car maybe only a foot away from the wall but never hitting it.

He may have torn up the grass, but his car remained intact.

"Somehow, someway, I kept it off the wall," Johnson said. "I'm shocked. My guys are happy. It's like we won the pole the way everybody was jumping and down. If I can't win the pole, at least I can put on a show."

Watching from the side, Gordon smiled and raised his arms as if in victory. Then he flashed his hands like he was giving Johnson a "10." It was a perfect save.

Ricky Rudd proved an able replacement for the injured Tony Stewart. With Stewart's broken shoulder blade making him unable to drive the majority of the 400 miles Sunday, Rudd came out of a season-long rest to qualify the car 10th with a lap of 152.931.

Stewart will start the race from the rear of the field and is set to be relieved by Rudd at the first caution.

"I think I left a little bit on the table," Rudd said. "This is a very fast race car. I just didn't want to dent it up for Sunday."

Rudd has four wins in 55 career starts at Dover.

After failing to qualify in last week's Coca-Cola 600 before buying his way in, Michael Waltrip made it Friday and earned a spot on the 17th row with a lap of 150.710.

Matt Kenseth, in second place and 109 points behind Johnson for the points lead, starts 19th.

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I was wondering where he's been! Super quiet this season Good to see!

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PRESS RELEASE
Rain Stops, Newman Wins Dover Pole!
Dodge Motorsports/Clear!Blue Communications Press Release


RYAN NEWMAN (No. 12 Alltel Dodge Charger) – Wins Pole

NOTE: Newman captured his first pole since last year at Texas, breaking a string of 14 races without a pole. He’s won 36 career poles in 165 career starts.
“The guys did a great job, and I’m just happy to be going in the right direction. That’ll lead to a good pit selection and a good start for a 400-mile race. That’s definitely important for us.

“I’m glad NASCAR hung on and got it in. It’s a good thing for radar because I think without it they would have been called. I’m happy we were able to finish it out, and I’m glad we got to go when we did. We had a fast lap, and I’m glad the track didn’t pick up a bunch of speed after the rain delay.

“It means something to win the pole. Atlanta was a little disappointing, getting beat by whatever it was. This is a sign of better things to come. It’s something we haven’t been able to do all year, and we were able to get in a little qualifying practice today, so I think that paid off.

“You’ve got to stay out of trouble first of all, but staying out of trouble on pit road is one of the biggest problems we have here. It’s a really tough transition on pit road, but once you’re on pit road it’s usually it’s usually stop and go bumper-to-bumper traffic, and that’s no way to make positions. When you have that No. 1 pit stall it helps out a lot. We’ll be in a good position from that point we just need to have a fast Alltel Dodge.

“A lot of good things happened today. We were able to get a few qualifying laps in in practice. That definitely helped having a better effort for qualifying. We had a good lap As it turns out it was a pretty good qualifying draw so we didn’t have to be a question mark if the rain was going to make the track better or worse. I don’t have an answer for that.

“I have to commend NASCAR and the racetrack or the combination of the two to get the track dried off in fairness to the whole field for the people who needed to qualify on speed. Mother Nature worked out for us getting a little sunlight and drying the track out pretty quick.. I was definitely a little bit nervous. I was sitting on the computer going through e-mail looking at old cars and old racecar parts and stuff like that.

“I think speed wise (the new tire) is maybe a tick slower, but it feels real good. I think the most we did was 24 laps in race trim, but the tire wear looks real good. This track always gets better as we go, as the rubber gets built up on the racetrack four or five grooves wide in the corners. It always gets better, and I’m looking forward to that.

“We talked about it after Charlotte. The pit selection here is more important than where you start the race. It’s easier to pass on the racetrack than it is on pit road. It’s very sensitive to losing spots on pit road because of how tight it is. Pit selection was very important. That led to our efforts to put a little more emphasis on qualifying based on what we’ve done this year. With the way the potential weather pattern is for tomorrow, not knowing if we’re going to get in race trim, we definitely had to do some race trim runs. We talked about it, more than we have the entire year about race trim versus qualifying trim. I think it paid off – great strategy.”



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Muwahahaha!!!! Mr. Friday is back!!!

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Dodge NNCS Teams Post-Dover Race Recaps
Dodge Motorsports/Clear!Blue Communications Press Release


KASEY KAHNE (No. 9 Dodge Dealers/UAW Dodge Charger)

“The guys did a good job today. We kept the car in one piece. It was a long day, and it was a tough race. We’re happy. It was a good run for us. It’s the best run I’ve had here yet as far as the finish goes. I’m happy we got a top 10 and brought it home in one piece. We’ll keep working on it and try to bring it back next time and do better. We worked on the car all day. We just didn’t make it a lot better. We made it better at times, but we never got that little bit we were looking for. We came close. We weren’t far from it. I think traffic slowed you down, but we just needed a little bit more and we could have passed cars and got to the front. I feel good about where we’re at. It was a good points day. We’re halfway to The Chase. We’ve just got to keep being consistent in these next 13 races and we’ll be in good shape.”


RYAN NEWMAN (No. 12 Alltel Dodge Charger)

“We had a top five car pretty much all day with the exception of track position and a bad pit stop that set us back and we never did recover. It seemed like the 6 and 99 had similar situations. Once they got in the back and they couldn’t recover. They didn’t have time to recover I don’t guess. It was a decent run for the Alltel Dodge. It wasn’t a good finishing position to run as well as we did most of the race. We ran in the top five most of the race and that’s more than we can say about most races this season. We’re still working to get things going in the right direction and today was a step in that direction. Pocono has been a good track. We’ve got to hit our things right and have a good day there. We can still make up the points and get in The Chase. We’ve got to work really hard. Fourteenth-place finishes won’t cut it. We’ve got to have top fives and top 10s from here on out.”


CASEY MEARS (No. 42 Texaco/Havoline Dodge Charger)

“We were OK there for awhile and could run decent on a long run. We were pretty slow on the first 10 or 15 laps. We just couldn’t go. We got a loose set of tires in the middle of the race and the next set of tires tightened up the car. The car was way too tight then and we fought that the rest of the way. The last set of tires we left the left rear loose and it was shaking real bad that whole run and we lost a lot of spots.”


BOBBY LABONTE (No. 43 Cheerios/Betty Crocker Dodge Charger)

“It wasn’t too bad. We started off pretty good. We were at our best midway in the race. We just got a little bit off and got a lap down on a green flag stop. We battled back and got our lap back and ended up 13th. It was a pretty good day. We picked up a couple of spots in the standings, but we’ve just got to keep working hard and getting better.”


JEREMY MAYFIELD (No. 19 Dodge Dealers/UAW Dodge Charger)

“We learned some things today, and it shows our program is making progress. We could have had a better finish, but it wasn’t because we had to chase the track all day. We led laps early and ran extremely well the first 100 miles. The car was really loose midway through the race, so we had a lot of work to do to regain the handling. We managed to do that over the last 100 laps. We’re making progress and will be going to two tracks where we have run well and won at in the past. We’re looking forward to the next two weeks.”


SCOTT RIGGS (No. 10 Valvoline/Stanley Tools Dodge Charger)

“We got a bad set of tires early in the race that made the car extremely tight, and that’s when we fell a lap down. Rodney (team director Childers) never gave up adjusting on the car, and the crew knocked off some pretty strong pit stops to get us in the "Lucky Dog" position. In the end this car was way too sensitive to the adjustments we threw at it. I don’t know if that is something tire or body-wise, but we plan on figuring that out before we bring it back to the track.”


KURT BUSCH (No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger)

“We worked hard today and learned a lot that will hopefully help us when we come back to Dover in the fall. That’ll be on of The Chase races, and we’ve got 13 races left to work our way back into the top 10. We’re at the halfway point and we’re not that far out of 10th place (265 points). We’ll have to work hard and start getting top fives and top 10s, but we’ve got some good tracks coming up. It’ll be a challenge, but it’ll be fun trying.”


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