Newman storms to Coke 600 pole

Ryan Newman

Rhonda McCole/AR1.com

Ryan Newman will take the green flag in Sunday’s 51st running of the Coca Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway in a very familiar place – starting in the pole position.

Newman pulled off a lap of 187.546 mph in the no. 39 ARMY Chevrolet to knock Martin Truex, Jr. off the top spot to notch his 46th career Sprint Cup pole, moving him up to tenth – tied with recent NASCAR Hall of Fame inductee Junior Johnson – on the all-time pole winners list.

Kurt Busch was second, followed by Truex, Jr., Kasey Kahne and Jimmie Johnson.

It was Newman’s ninth career Charlotte pole – most among active drivers – and second-straight for the Coca Cola 600. In 19 starts, he has yet to win at the track, finishing a career-best second in last year’s rain-shortened race.

Running a white-knuckle line hugging the wall all along the high side, Newman made his run late in the session after track temperatures dropped off from the earlier practice session where Newman was second fastest.

“I’ve never done that in qualifying here before," said Newman on running the high side. “It tells you how much things have changed between the tires and the track and cars to be able to do something different than I’ve always done to create that ultimate fast lap.

“I talked to Jimmie Johnson, he asked me….’are you going to run the top or the bottom? The top. I’m going for it all.’ I did. And it paid off. When you feel it’s right, you feel it’s right."

Dodge pilot Kurt Busch, fresh from his victory in last weekend’s Sprint All Star race, came out a little later in the session and ran a top lap of 187.292 mph, just edging out Truex, Jr. for the outside pole.

Busch has hoped to give team owner Roger Penske his second pole of the week, with fellow Penske Racing teammate Helio Castroneves taking the pole for the Indianapolis 500.

“It was a great effort from our team to be able to balance out that setup from last Saturday night into a qualifying package," said Busch. “With Roger (Penske) on the pole at Indy, I was trying to deliver him a pole down here in Charlotte. We’re close. We’re front row and we’ll go from there."

Truex, Jr., the winner of last Saturday’s Sprint Showdown and runner-up in the Sprint All Race, held on for the third starting spot with a top speed of 187.292 mph in the no. 56 NAPA Batteries Toyota, his career best start at Charlotte.

“It was good last week, obviously," said Truex, Jr. “It was good to get some momentum through the All Star race. We’ve been chipping away at it and been coming together as a group. We’re still an awfully new team. Charlotte has always been a tough track for me, but I’m really starting to come around and warm up to it."

Defending race winner David Reutimann will start sixth, followed by Denny Hamlin, Joey Logano, Kyle Busch and Clint Bowyer.

Brad Keselowski spun out during the second lap of his qualifying attempt, putting him in a back-up car for Sunday night’s race. David Ragan spun before taking the green flag and was allowed to come to pit road and change tires before taking making another qualifying attempt. He eventually qualified 35th.

Reed Sorenson, Max Papis, David Stremme and Mike Bliss failed to qualify for Sunday’s race.

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