CUP: Kahne On Pole At Infineon

Sprint Cup

CUP: Kahne On Pole At Infineon

Kasey Kahne continued to be as hot as the blazing California sun on Friday, as he claimed the pole for Sunday’s Toyota/Save Mart 350...

Tom Jensen | Posted June 20, 2008 Sonoma, Calif.

Kasey Kahne scored the pole position for Sunday's Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Infineon Raceway. (John Harrelson/Getty Images Photo)

Kasey Kahne continued to be as hot as the blazing Northern California sun on Friday, as he claimed the pole for Sunday’s Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, Calif.

Kahne, who has three victories and a runner-up finish in his last five Sprint Cup starts, blistered the 12-turn, 1.99-mile Infineon Raceway road course with a lap of 77.740 miles per hour in his Gillett Evernham Dodge Charger. In the process, Kahne earned his second pole of the season and 16th of his Sprint Cup career.

“We’ve been decent this whole year and the All-Star race we got good. We’ve been good ever since,” said Kahne, who in the last month has climbed from 14th to seventh in Sprint Cup points. “We just hit on a few set-up things that have helped a lot. And our team morale and my communication to the team have been really good. There are just a lot of little things that I think really got going once we started winning. We haven’t been bad, and we’ve been close all year. So it’s been good. We’ve had good racecars.”

Second-fast was the Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet of Jimmie Johnson, which ran 92.040 mph. Then it was Kurt Busch, 92.005 mph in a Penske Racing Dodge Charger and Bobby Labonte, who had a lap of 91.943 mph in his Petty Enterprises Dodge. Jeff Gordon completed the top five in a second Hendrick Chevy at 91.923 mph.

The second five was Elliott Sadler, Marcos Ambrose, Robby Gordon, Ryan Newman and Greg Biffle.

Tony Stewart, who along with Jeff Gordon is one of top road racers among the regulars, had an awful session, qualifying 38th.

“We definitely don’t want to start deep in the field like that because it makes for a long day – you don’t ever get a chance to take care of your stuff,” said Stewart, a two-time Sprint Cup champion. “You have to fight the whole day. It makes it to where you lose your equipment early in the race and you hope you have everything left at the end of the day you hope you have brakes left when you get down to the point that it really matters. We don’t have the luxury of just sitting there and riding around to protect your car. You have to battle the whole way.”

Racing their way into the field were Marcos Ambrose in the Wood Brothers Ford; Max Papis in a Haas-CNC Racing Chevy; Joe Nemechek’s Furniture Row Racing Chevrolet; Boris Said in his own Ford; AJ ALlmendinger’s Red Bull Racing Toyota; Patrick Carpentier’s Gillett Evernham Dodge; Terry Labonte in a Petty Enterprises Dodge and Brian Simo in a Front Row Racing Chevy.
Failing to qualify were four drivers: Brandon Ash, Scott Riggs, Dario Franchitti and J.J. Yeley.

TOYOTA/SAVE MART 350 QUALIFYING RESULTS

Tom Jensen is the Senior NASCAR Editor for SPEEDtv.com, the former Executive Editor of NASCAR Scene and a contributing Editor for TruckSeries.com. He is the author of “Cheating: The Bad Things Good NASCAR Nextel Cup Racers Do In Pursuit of SPEED,” and has appeared on numerous television and radio shows to discuss NASCAR racing. Jensen is the President of the National Motorsports Press Association. The Answer Man is back at SPEEDtv.com. Tom Jensen answers your questions during every race week and looks forward to hearing from you - please e-mail it to

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