Concord, NC (Best E Casino) - Ryan Newman led an all-Penske front row capturing the pole for Sunday's Coca-Cola 600 at the Lowe's Motor Speedway. The No.12 Penske Racing Dodge circled the 1.5-mile superspeedway in 29.140 seconds (185.312 m.p.h.).
The pole victory was Newman's second of the season, sixth at Lowe's and 39th of his Nextel Cup career. Owner Roger Penske will also have the pole sitter for this year's Indianapolis 500 (Helio Castroneves) which will also be run this Sunday.
"It was a good run for the Alltel Dodge," said Newman. "The guys did a great job, we never did a qualifying run in practice."
Starting alongside Newman for the longest race of the year, 600 miles, will be his teammate Kurt Busch, who posted a second-best time of 29.179 seconds.
Elliott Sadler (29.189) and Dale Earnhardt Jr. (29.247) will make up row two.
Other drivers of note and their starting positions: Matt Kenseth (5th), Denny Hamlin (6th), Mark Martin (11th), Tony Stewart (14th), defending Coca-Cola 600 champion Kasey Kahne (18th), Juan Montoya (20th) and Bill Elliott (22nd).
Michael Waltrip crashed in qualifying and will not race in the "600." It is the eleventh straight event which Waltrip has missed.
Through the first 11 events, Jeff Gordon (starting 32nd) has three wins and 10 top-10s to build a lead of 231 points. In the past five races he has been even better. The No.24 Hendrick Motorsports Dept. Of Defense Chevrolet driver has earned 900 points or 180 points per race.
If someone is to challenge Gordon, it will most likely be teammate Jimmie Johnson (starting 21st).
Johnson "owns" the track that has the same name as his primary sponsor. He leads all active drivers with five wins in 11 career starts at Lowe's, including 10 consecutive top-10 finishes.
Johnson won three consecutive "600s" from 2003-2005 and swept both points events in both 2004 and 2005. In the last three years he has finished no worse than third. He also won twice in the All-Star Challenge.
Last year, Johnson finished second twice at Lowe's, both times behind Kahne. Kahne had a great 2006, winning a series-high six times and finishing a career-best eighth in the "Chase."
But 2007 has been rough for the young Evernham Motorsports driver. Heading into this Memorial Day weekend, Kahne has accrued just one top-10 amd that was in the season opener at Daytona. Although he has climbed from 36th to 30th over the past few weeks, he is well behind last year's pace when he was eighth at this time.
The race is scheduled to drop the green flag on Sunday at 5:40 p.m. (et).
