Ryan Newman became the 9th driver in the history of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series to win 50 poles in his 424th attempt. He won the pole at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway with a lap of 187.531 mph with a new track record for the NASCAR series at a time of 47.992 seconds. Casey Mears set the previous track record with a speed of 186.293 mph 9 years ago at the famous track.
Newman, in the #39 Stewart-Haas Racing, Quicken Loans Chevrolet was the 45th and final car to make a qualifying attempt. He knocked Jimmie Johnson to the 2nd starting position. Johnson, who was 4th quick in the final practice, was the 11th car out and set the fast time for the day with a speed of 187.438 mph. He would have to wait until the last car of the day to be bumped to the 2nd starting position.
“That is the benefit of going out last. You can see where guys are making the most time. I’ll admit I was emotional. For me its special because it is the Brickyard, and I hadn’t won a pole here before even though I have won so many poles. It’s been so long since I won a pole, people ask me if I ran out of fuel for the rockets. That type of thing. So this is special to me for a lot of reasons; being home here in Indiana; being at the Brickyard; being so long since I won a pole. Hopefully we can turn it into a good day tomorrow”, said Newman when asked about his record setting lap.
Points leader Jimmie Johnson, in the #48 Lowe’s/Kobalt Tools Chevrolet will start 2nd and said of his own lap, “That was a good lap. You always look back on things and wish you could have another shot at it, but very strong lap.” When asked about his thoughts of getting a record 5th win at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, he said, “It is just indescribable. In the company I am right now with Jeff Gordon and Rick Mears as a four-time winner is beyond my wildest dreams. I have grown up watching many races here like all motorsports fans do. Always dreamed about racing here and had a chance to come out here and be a part of it all. I would be on cloud nine. It’s hard to find words for it. I haven’t really thought about it too much . This is a very special race track and I’m very proud of the four wins I have here”.
Carl Edwards, in the #99 Fastenal Ford starts 3rd with a speed of 187.157 mph. “We have a fast race car and I am pretty proud of that lap. If I did it again I don’t know that I could go any faster. If we can start up front I think we have the pit crew and crew chief on the box and a car that can win this race. I want to win this thing badly.”
Rounding out the top 5 were, Denny Hamlin 4th, and Newman’s car owner and teammate, Tony Stewart who starts in the 5th position.
Kurt Busch, who was fastest in the final practice lines up 6th with a lap of 186.722 mph. Kasey Kahne, in the #5 Great Clips Chevrolet starts 7th, Juan Pablo Montoya, 8th, Jeff Gordon, 9th, and Marcos Ambrose in the #9 DeWalt Ford starts in the 10th position.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. in the #88 National Guard Chevrolet qualified 15th. ” Well, we would have liked to run a little bit better than that. The guys did a good job. They made a lot of changes during practice. It was a decent lap” said Earnhardt after his run.
Danica Patrick struggled to a 33rd qualifying start at the track where she has the most experience and some of the best runs of her Indy Car career. When asked about her first start at Indianapolis in a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series car, Danica said, “In our practice and qualifying runs it was pretty decent and then we’d get really tight off of turn 4, which is a tough problem to fix because you’re looking for some odd issue that’s making it really tight on the last corner. So the positive side is that it was consistent the whole way around the track. It was just consistently tight”.
Mike Bliss in the #19 Toyota, and Scott Speed in the #95, Leavine Family Racing Ford both failed to make the race.
Sunday will mark the 20th running of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, which ran its first Cup race in 1994 and was won by a young Jeff Gordon.
Starting line up for the 2013 Crown Royal Presents the Samuel Deeds 400 at The Brickyard:
1. (39) Ryan Newman, Chevrolet, 187.531 mph
2. (48) Jimmie Johnson, Chevrolet, 187.438
3. (99) Carl Edwards, Ford, 187.157
4. (11) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 187.122
5. (14) Tony Stewart, Chevrolet, 186.827
6. (78) Kurt Busch, Chevrolet, 186.722
7. (5) Kasey Kahne, Chevrolet, 186.633
8. (42) Juan Pablo Montoya, Chevrolet, 186.536
9. (24) Jeff Gordon, Chevrolet, 186.474
10. (9) Marcos Ambrose, Ford, 186.281
11. (22) Joey Logano, Ford, 185.954
12. (2) Brad Keselowski, Ford, 185.92
13. (20) Matt Kenseth, Toyota, 185.789
14. (51) A J Allmendinger, Chevrolet, 185.655
15. (88) Dale Earnhardt Jr., Chevrolet, 185.621
16. (31) Jeff Burton, Chevrolet, 185.448
17. (15) Clint Bowyer, Toyota, 185.437
18. (1) Jamie McMurray, Chevrolet, 185.181
19. (18) Kyle Busch, Toyota, 185.101
20. (33) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 184.961
21. (43) Aric Almirola, Ford, 184.794
22. (93) Travis Kvapil, Toyota, 184.676
23. (27) Paul Menard, Chevrolet, 184.646
24. (29) Kevin Harvick, Chevrolet, 184.593
25. (17) Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Ford, 184.536
26. (55) Mark Martin, Toyota, 184.305
27. (16) Greg Biffle, Ford, 184.045
28. (21) Trevor Bayne, Ford, 183.906
29. (40) Landon Cassill, Chevrolet, 183.816
30. (13) Casey Mears, Ford, 183.752
31. (83) David Reutimann, Toyota, 183.329
32. (35) Josh Wise, Ford, 183.046
33. (10) Danica Patrick, Chevrolet, 182.938
34. (47) Bobby Labonte, Toyota, 182.826
35. (98) Michael McDowell, Ford, 182.819
36. (34) David Ragan, Ford, 182.448
37. (30) David Stremme, Toyota, 181.675, owner points
38. (56) Martin Truex Jr., Toyota, 181.536, owner points
39. (36) J.J. Yeley, Chevrolet, 181.240, owner points
40. (87) Joe Nemechek, Toyota, 180.825, owner points
41. (7) Dave Blaney, Chevrolet, 179.878, owner points
42. (38) David Gilliland, Ford, 179.548, owner points
43. (32) Timmy Hill, Ford, 178.770, owner points
