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Kahne captures the pole at Martinsville

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SM Staff
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[media-credit id=5 align=”alignright” width=”234″][/media-credit]Following Sprint Cup qualifying, Kasey Kahne won the pole for the Goody’s Fast Relief 500 at Martinsville Speedway. This marks Kahne’s 24th career Coors Light Pole Award and his first pole at Martinsville.

“It was a really solid lap,” he says. “The team did a good job yesterday.  We didn’t have the most speed yesterday but I felt like the car was balanced really well.  I felt pretty stable going around the track. It was the same in qualifying today.  It was a good lap.  First pole here for myself.  It’s a tough track to qualify.  It’s a tough track to race, always has been one of my tougher ones over the years.  I’m glad we can start up front and have a great pit stall in that number one stall.  I think that helps throughout the whole race with track position.  Hopefully we will have a solid day tomorrow.  That is what we need to do.  We have had great Friday and Saturday’s and just haven’t put together a Sunday yet.”

Kahne drove a lap of 19.496 seconds, to beat Kevin Harvick by 16 hundredths of a second.

“The guys have done a great job this weekend,” Harvick says. “The track conditions have changed a lot since the beginning of practice until where we are now.  Obviously the race conditions are where we will have to take a little bit of a guess like we did for qualifying based on the rubber being on the track from yesterday.  They have done a good job and I just slipped the tires off both corners a little bit but all-in-all they have stepped the program up this year.”

Four-time Martinsville Speedway winner Denny Hamlin qualified third with a lap of 19.521 seconds.

“We didn’t really show a lot of good qualifying speed or really front end speed of a long run yesterday,” he says. “That’s good for us to be that close and after only a couple laps. I feel like once the race gets into a groove and gets going — things get strung out, I think we’ll be pretty good.”

Clint Bowyer and Ryan Newman rounded out the top five.

Brian Vickers, making his second start of the season, starts sixth. He is followed by Brad Keselowski, Kyle Busch, seven-time Martinsville winner Jeff Gordon and Joey Logano. Six-time Martinsville winner Jimmie Johnson qualified 22nd while points leader Greg Biffle is 26th.

Tony Raines was disqualified from the starting field after his car was found to be too low in post-qualifying inspection. That moved J.J. Yeley into the 43-car field.

Starting Lineup
Goody’s Fast Relief 500, Martinsville Speedway
http://www.speedwaymedia.com/Cup/qual.php?race=6
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Pos. No. Driver Make Speed Time
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1 5 Kasey Kahne Chevrolet 97.128 19.496
2 29 Kevin Harvick Chevrolet 97.048 19.512
3 11 Denny Hamlin Toyota 97.003 19.521
4 15 Clint Bowyer Toyota 97.003 19.521
5 39 Ryan Newman Chevrolet 96.988 19.524
6 55 Brian Vickers Toyota 96.765 19.569
7 2 Brad Keselowski Dodge 96.751 19.572
8 18 Kyle Busch Toyota 96.745 19.573
9 24 Jeff Gordon Chevrolet 96.731 19.576
10 20 Joey Logano Toyota 96.706 19.581
11 27 Paul Menard Chevrolet 96.701 19.582
12 9 Marcos Ambrose Ford 96.627 19.597
13 56 Martin Truex Jr. Toyota 96.583 19.606
14 88 Dale Earnhardt Jr. Chevrolet 96.43 19.637
15 14 Tony Stewart Chevrolet 96.322 19.659
16 47 Bobby Labonte Toyota 96.215 19.681
17 78 Regan Smith Chevrolet 96.2 19.684
18 31 Jeff Burton Chevrolet 96.18 19.688
19 43 Aric Almirola Ford 96.049 19.715
20 1 Jamie McMurray Chevrolet 96.049 19.715
21 17 Matt Kenseth Ford 95.971 19.731
22 48 Jimmie Johnson Chevrolet 95.854 19.755
23 98 Michael McDowell Ford 95.849 19.756
24 34 David Ragan Ford 95.83 19.76
25 13 Casey Mears Ford 95.796 19.767
26 16 Greg Biffle Ford 95.743 19.778
27 22 AJ Allmendinger Dodge 95.738 19.779
28 99 Carl Edwards Ford 95.607 19.806
29 10 David Reutimann Chevrolet 95.607 19.806
30 26 Josh Wise* Ford 95.583 19.811
31 83 Landon Cassill Toyota 95.511 19.826
32 42 Juan Montoya Chevrolet 95.477 19.833
33 23 Scott Riggs Chevrolet 95.352 19.859
34 93 Travis Kvapil Toyota 95.347 19.86
35 74 Reed Sorenson Chevrolet 95.223 19.886
36 32 Ken Schrader Ford 95.127 19.906
37 87 Joe Nemechek Toyota 94.936 19.946
38 38 David Gilliland Ford 94.78 19.979
39 30 David Stremme Toyota 94.609 20.015
40 51 Kurt Busch Chevrolet 94.566 20.024
41 33 Hermie Sadler Chevrolet 94.486 20.041
42 36 Dave Blaney+ Chevrolet 93.18 20.322
43 249 J.J. Yeley Toyota 93.212 20.315

KASEY KAHNE WINS POLE FOR GOODY’S FAST RELIEF 500 AT MARTINSVILLE SPEEDWAY

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CHEVY NSCS AT MARTINSVILLE ONE — Jeff Gordon Press Conf. Transcript

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Goody’s(r) Headache Powder Names Life-Time Spokesperson Richard Petty Goody’s(r) Fast Relief 500 Grand Marshal

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CHEVY NSCS AT MARTINSVILLE ONE — Jeff Burton Press Conf. Transcript

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25 Winning Years — April 14, 2002 – Roush Fenway Places Four Cars in Top 10 at Martinsville

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J.R. Fitzpatrick Set to Tackle Martinsville Paperclip This Weekend

By
SM Staff
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[media-credit id=4 align=”alignleft” width=”266″][/media-credit]A couple weeks before the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series season opener at Daytona International Speedway, fans learned that J.R. Fitzpatrick had struck a deal to drive for TurnOne Racing this season. However, it wasn’t just a quick last minute deal.

“Stacy and I had been talking well over a year, putting this deal together,” Fitzpatrick says. “Even though we still got a couple gaps to go for the remaining parts of the year to be able to run full season here.”

The opening race at Daytona didn’t go as Fitzpatrick would’ve hoped as he finished 34th due to debris hitting the radiator.

“It’s just unfortunate that we didn’t have a truck that was very fast by itself, so obviously we had to start at the back,” he says. “It worked really well, it sucked up in the draft really well. I think if we would’ve missed the wreck, we would’ve been good.

“I hung around the back, tried to stay away from all the wrecks, but ended up involved in one. So you go to front, you go to the back, I don’t know. Its just a big chess game. So our strategy didn’t work.”

Now focus shifts to this weekend at Martinsville Speedway where Fitzpatrick is hoping to have a good finish.

“The track is exciting,” he says. “Obviously it’s a little more familiar to what I’m used to, in terms of short track racing. Even though it’s definitely a lot bigger than tracks at home, it’s definitely something I’m comfortable on. I’ve already been there twice.

In his last two starts on the paperclip, despite running strong, he finished 21st both times due to being caught up in wrecks. However, so far this weekend things look good as he was 15th in final practice and tested well.

“We tested extremely well so I think going into the race this weekend, I think we have one of the best trucks ever,” he says. “So looking forward to it.”

Hoping the rest of the season goes well, Fitzpatrick is hoping to finish in the top 10 in points.

He got started in racing at the age of six running a Jr. Late Model at Sauble Beach. Then he was 13 years old, he moved to Delaware Speedway and got a late model.

Fitzpatrick then moved up to the CASCAR Super Series, where he finished second in the Rookie of the Year standings in 2004 at the age of 16. At the age of 17, he scored his first win and got three top-fives and five top-10 finishes.

[media-credit name=”TurnOne Racing” align=”alignright” width=”301″][/media-credit]Then in 2006, he became the youngest Canadian National Series Champion winning the CASCAR Championship with a win, five podium finishes and two pole awards at the age of 18.

Between 2006 and 2007, NASCAR took over the series, renaming it the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series. Since then, Fitzpatrick has scored six wins, 22 top fives and 36 top 10s in 54 starts while finishing as high as second in 2010.

Heading into this year, he is hoping to win the championship.

“I haven’t been able to piece that together,” he says. “Last couple of years, I’ve been second, third in points, due to mechanical failure. I think now with the new stuff that we’ve got, I don’t think that’s going to be a problem anymore.”

The first race on the schedule is Canadian Tire Motorsports Park (Mosport), which is set to happen on May 20th.

“We’re going for the win,” he says. “I think there’s only two of us that are two time winners at that place and we’re both going to be at that race so it’s going to be exciting. That’s one of my favourite tracks and to be one of the guys everybody watches every week when we go there, it’s kind of a cool feeling. Having new road course equipment, it makes that program better. So I think we’re going to be a threat to win one.”

When he is not racing at the NASCAR ranks, you can still find Fitzpatrick racing somewhere as he often goes go-karting.

“It’s a lot of fun,” he says. “When I’m not working on a car or doing anything of that nature, I go out with a bunch of people and go-kart whenever I can. The place I normally go to, I know inside and out, so it’s a lot of fun.”

Looking forward 10 years down the road, he says he can’t plan that far ahead, but still wants to be racing.

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