NASCAR Sprint-Cup Series
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CUP: Stewart Smokes Way To Pocono Pole
Tony Stewart won his 12th NASCAR Sprint Cup Series career pole on Friday...
Tom Jensen  |  Posted July 30, 2010   Long Pond, PA
Tony Stewart scored his 12th career NASCAR Sprint Cup Series pole award Friday at Pocono Raceway. (Photo: Getty Images)
For all his many talents, Tony Stewart has never counted qualifying prowess as one of his strengths. You wouldn’t know that on Friday, however, as the two-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Champion blasted his way to the pole for Sunday’s Sunoco Red Cross Pennsylvania 500 at Pocono Raceway.

Stewart, who was fifth fastest in Friday’s 90-minute practice, burned up the 2.5-mile Pocono triangle with a lap of 171.393 miles per hour in his No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet. It was just the 12th pole in 413 career Sprint Cup starts for Stewart, who by comparison has 37 race victories in that same period.

“I’m really happy,” said Stewart, who had raced in a sprint car event the night before in Fargo, N.D., where he crashed while running second in the A Main. “... Really proud of this Office Depot/Old Spice team. I told Darian (Grubb, crew chief) I wasn’t in a very good mood this morning and I was going to take it out on somebody. I just didn’t realize I was going to take it out on the clock.”

Although he is winless so far this year, Stewart has been running well of late, scoring top-10 finishes in seven of his last nine starts. “We’re gaining on it,” said Stewart. “We aren’t all the way there yet though. I’m proud of my guys. The morale of the team is up. They’re doing a really good job at staying focused. They’ve all got direction now and nobody is off running on tangents trying to do something off of what everybody else is doing. Our guys are real focused now but we still have a way to go.”

Starting alongside Stewart on Juan Pablo Montoya, who is coming off his second consecutive heartbreak at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, where he again led the most laps before crashing out late in the race. Montoya’s lap was 171.096 mph, putting the No. 42 Earnhardt Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates Chevy on the outside of Row 1.

“I think track position is huge,” Montoya said, pleased with his effort. “I’m really happy ... this Target Chevy has been amazing.”

Starting on the inside of Row 2 on Sunday will be the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota of Denny Hamlin, always one of the favorites to win here. Hamlin’s lap was 170.371 mph, good but not good enough for the pole.

“It’s still not there,” said Hamlin, the four-time Pocono winner after his qualifying run. “The time might look OK, but we’ve got some work to do.”
VIDEO: Pocono Raceway Qualifying Tony Stewart wins pole award at Pocono Raceway. (Image: SPEED)

Starting outside of Hamlin on Row 2 will be four-time NASCAR Sprint Cup champion Jeff Gordon, who turned a lap of 170.222 mph in his No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet.

“Right now we want to win for those bonus points,” said Gordon, who is looking for his first victory of 2010. “A track like Pocono didn't do a whole lot for us for the championship in any other way because this way - same with Indy - there's no characteristics that you can really gain from those tracks that are going to help you at the mile-and-a-half's and the short tracks, you know, and Talladega for the Chase. ... It is more important for us to build momentum. It's been nice we've shown we can be consistent, we've shown we can lead laps. But we have to show that we can win as well.”

Row 3 will be Ryan Newman, 169.936 mph in the No. 39 SHR Chevy, and four-time defending NASCAR Sprint Cup champion Jimmie Johnson, who ran 169.901 mph in the No. 48 Hendrick Chevy. The top six qualifiers were all Chevys, with four of the six — the two Hendrick cars and the two SHR entries — running Hendrick engines and chassis.

Completing the top 10 were AJ Allmendinger, Jeff Burton, Brickyard 400 winner Jamie McMurray and Mark Martin.

Failing to qualify were David Stremme and Max Papis.

LINK > NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES QUALIFYING: PENNSYLVANIA 500 - POCONO RACEWAY

Tom Jensen is the Editor in Chief of SPEED.com, Senior NASCAR Editor at RACER and a contributing Editor for TruckSeries.com. You can follow him online at twitter.com/tomjensen100 and e-mail him at Jensen 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. Jensen is the past President of the National Motorsports Press Association and an NMPA Writer of the Year.

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