Ryan Newman wins pole in Phoenix

Ryan Newman

Daytona 500 winner Ryan Newman streaked around 1-mile Phoenix International Raceway in 26.975 seconds (133.457 mph) Thursday to win the pole for Saturday's Subway Fresh Fit 500, edging Elliott Sadler for the top spot by just 0.009 seconds.

It was Newman's first pole of the season — the eighth consecutive year he has won at least one pole — and the 43rd of his career, tying him with Buck Baker for 10th on the all-time list. The pole was Newman's fourth at Phoenix but the first since he won three in a row from 2002 through 2004.

"We were fast in practice," said Newman, who topped Thursday's opening session (speeds).

"It wasn't a perfect lap, but it was a very good lap," said Newman, the track qualifying record holder. "I want to thank everybody at Penske Racing."

The run was a rebound from the penalty Newman and the No. 12 team received after failing post-race inspection at Texas.

“You never make up points that you lost, but you can make the effort, obviously, to put yourself in position so those points didn’t matter and we’re trying to do that," said Newman.

“We got caught off guard there at the end of the race last week but we’ll battle through it. We learned from our mistake. That’s behind us and more importantly we can think positive and move forward."

Conservative or not, Newman's lap was good enough to steal the pole from Sadler (133.412 mph), whose previous best starting position at Phoenix was ninth in 2004.

"We were so close," Sadler said. "I'd rather lose the pole by three-tenths (of a second) than a hundredth."

Carl Edwards (133.378 mph) was third, followed by Mark Martin (133.368 mph) and Kasey Kahne (133.304 mph).

"I think we are going to be pretty competitive on Saturday night," said Edwards.

Kyle Busch, Jimmie Johnson, Jamie McMurray, Martin Truex, Jr. and defending race winner Jeff Gordon rounded out the top ten.

Kyle Petty and John Andretti failed to qualify for Saturday's race.

Saturday night's Subway Fresh Fit 500 is slated for a 8:30 p.m. (ET) start.

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