Surprise pole winner in New Hampshire
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| Raybestos Rookie of the Year Contender Patrick Carpentier earned his first career NASCAR Sprint Cup Series pole on Friday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway |
| Todd Warshaw/Getty Images for NASCAR |
Ex-Champ Car star Patrick Carpentier surprised a lot of people on pit road by winning his first career pole for Sunday's NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Lenox Industrial Tools 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
Carpentier drove his Gillett Evernham Motorsports Dodge to his first pole in his 17th Sprint Cup start and will lead the field to the green in Sunday's 17th race of the 2008 season.
The qualifying sessions was halted for about a 90-minute rain delay after only 24 cars took laps. Once the skies cleared and the track dried, the rest of the field took their laps with Carpentier turning his surprising lap of 129.776 mph.
Bobby Labonte made it an all-Dodge front row by putting the Petty Enterprises No. 43 entry outside the front row.
Kevin Harvick, Scott Riggs and Dale Earnhardt, Jr. rounded out the top five.
Reed Sorenson, Dario Franchitti, Martin Truex, Jr., Matt Kenseth and A.J. Allmendinger completed the first 10 qualifiers.
Sunday's Lenox Industrial Tools 301 will take the green flag at 1:30 p.m. (ET).
Results
|
POS |
CAR | DRIVER | MAKE | SPONSOR | SPEED | TIME | BEHIND |
| 1 | 10 | Patrick Carpentier* | Dodge | Berlin City Auto Group | 129.776 | 29.349 | Leader |
| 2 | 43 | Bobby Labonte | Dodge | Cheerios / Betty Crocker | 129.059 | 29.512 | -0.163 |
| 3 | 66 | Scott Riggs | Chevrolet | State Water Heaters | 128.976 | 29.531 | -0.182 |
| 4 | 29 | Kevin Harvick | Chevrolet | Shell / Pennzoil | 128.976 | 29.531 | -0.182 |
| 5 | 88 | Dale Earnhardt Jr. | Chevrolet | National Guard / AMP Energy | 128.885 | 29.552 | -0.203 |
| 6 | 41 | Reed Sorenson | Dodge | Target | 128.828 | 29.565 | -0.216 |
| 7 | 40 | Dario Franchitti* | Dodge | The Guitar Hero / Target | 128.824 | 29.566 | -0.217 |
| 8 | 1 | Martin Truex Jr. | Chevrolet | Bass Pro Shops / Tracker | 128.645 | 29.607 | -0.258 |
| 9 | 17 | Matt Kenseth | Ford | DEWALT | 128.624 | 29.612 | -0.263 |
| 10 | 84 | A.J. Allmendinger | Toyota | Red Bull | 128.624 | 29.612 | -0.263 |
| 11 | 19 | Elliott Sadler | Dodge | Hancock / Best Buy / Garmin | 128.576 | 29.623 | -0.274 |
| 12 | 11 | Denny Hamlin | Toyota | FedEx Ground | 128.498 | 29.641 | -0.292 |
| 13 | 26 | Jamie McMurray | Ford | IRWIN Industrial Tools | 128.459 | 29.650 | -0.301 |
| 14 | 9 | Kasey Kahne | Dodge | Budweiser | 128.424 | 29.658 | -0.309 |
| 15 | 16 | Greg Biffle | Ford | 3M | 128.415 | 29.660 | -0.311 |
| 16 | 12 | Ryan Newman | Dodge | Alltel | 128.385 | 29.667 | -0.318 |
| 17 | 99 | Carl Edwards | Ford | DISH Network / DishDVRs | 128.337 | 29.678 | -0.329 |
| 18 | 07 | Clint Bowyer | Chevrolet | Jack Daniel's | 128.299 | 29.687 | -0.338 |
| 19 | 24 | Jeff Gordon | Chevrolet | DuPont | 128.273 | 29.693 | -0.344 |
| 20 | 77 | Sam Hornish Jr.* | Dodge | Mobil 1 | 128.251 | 29.698 | -0.349 |
| 21 | 28 | Travis Kvapil | Ford | Ford. Drive one. | 128.117 | 29.729 | -0.380 |
| 22 | 7 | Robby Gordon | Dodge | Robby Gordon Motorsports | 128.057 | 29.743 | -0.394 |
| 23 | 48 | Jimmie Johnson | Chevrolet | Lowe's | 128.048 | 29.745 | -0.396 |
| 24 | 5 | Casey Mears | Chevrolet | CARQUEST / Kellogg's | 127.984 | 29.760 | -0.411 |
| 25 | 01 | Regan Smith* | Chevrolet | DEI / Principal Financial Group | 127.872 | 29.786 | -0.437 |
| 26 | 2 | Kurt Busch | Dodge | Miller Lite | 127.859 | 29.789 | -0.440 |
| 27 | 18 | Kyle Busch | Toyota | Interstate Batteries | 127.782 | 29.807 | -0.458 |
| 28 | 20 | Tony Stewart | Toyota | The Home Depot | 127.731 | 29.819 | -0.470 |
| 29 | 44 | David Reutimann | Toyota | UPS | 127.722 | 29.821 | -0.472 |
| 30 | 96 | J.J. Yeley | Toyota | DLP HDTV | 127.662 | 29.835 | -0.486 |
| 31 | 31 | Jeff Burton | Chevrolet | LENOX Industrial Tools | 127.649 | 29.838 | -0.489 |
| 32 | 42 | Juan Montoya | Dodge | Texaco / Havoline | 127.560 | 29.859 | -0.510 |
| 33 | 38 | David Gilliland | Ford | FreeCreditReport.com | 127.444 | 29.886 | -0.537 |
| 34 | 45 | Terry Labonte | Dodge | Victory Junction Gang | 127.397 | 29.897 | -0.548 |
| 35 | 6 | David Ragan | Ford | AAA Insurance / Red Sox | 127.312 | 29.917 | -0.568 |
| 36 | 55 | Michael Waltrip | Toyota | NAPA AUTO PARTS | 126.981 | 29.995 | -0.646 |
| 37 | 70 | Johnny Sauter | Chevrolet | Atlas Copco | 126.964 | 29.999 | -0.650 |
| 38 | 00 | Michael McDowell* | Toyota | Champion Mortgage | 126.846 | 30.027 | -0.678 |
| 39 | 8 | Aric Almirola | Chevrolet | U.S. Army | 126.648 | 30.074 | -0.725 |
| 40 | 83 | Brian Vickers | Toyota | Red Bull | 126.572 | 30.092 | -0.743 |
| 41 | 22 | Dave Blaney | Toyota | Caterpillar | 126.374 | 30.139 | -0.790 |
| 42 | 15 | Paul Menard+ | Chevrolet | Sylvania / Menards | 126.148 | 30.193 | -0.844 |
| 43 | 78 | Joe Nemechek | Chevrolet | Furniture Row/ DenverMattress.com | 126.391 | 30.135 | -0.786 |
| Did Not Qualify | |||||||
| 44 | 34 | Tony Raines | Chevrolet | doorstopnation.com | 126.307 | 30.155 | -0.806 |
| 45 | 21 | Marcos Ambrose | Ford | Little Debbie Honey Buns | 125.422 | 30.368 | -1.019 |