There were a lot of complaints about ill-handling race cars both during and after Saturday night’s Budweiser Shootout at Daytona International Speedway, but the final post-mortem seemed to be “business as usual.”
February 2009
Daytona 500 Front Row is set: Truex on the pole
on
The front row is set for next weeks Daytona 500. Locked in are Mark Martin on the outside pole, and Martin Truex Jr. is the pole sitter, driving the #1 Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet. Everyone else needs to either qualify their way in, or set their starting spots on Thursday in the Gatorade Duels at Daytona.
Here’s how the top 10 stack up…
1 Martin Truex Jr.
2 Mark Martin
3 Ryan Newman
4 Juan Pablo Montoya
5 Bill Elliott
6 Jimmie johnson
7 Aric Almirola
8 Travis Kvapil
9 Jeff Gordon
10 Tony Stewart
Continue reading “Daytona 500 Front Row is set: Truex on the pole”
Solid Debut for Tony Stewart as Driver/Owner
on
It took Tony Stewart just 13 laps to lead for the first time as a driver/owner in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.
Stewart, driver of the No. 14 Old Spice/Office Depot Chevrolet Impala SS for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR), led laps 13-16 en route to a solid third-place finish in Saturday night’s Budweiser Shootout at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway.
The Budweiser Shootout is an exhibition race featuring the top-six cars from each of the four manufacturers – Chevrolet, Ford, Dodge and Toyota – along with a wild card entry from each manufacturer that goes to a past champion. If no past champion, the manufacturer’s seventh-highest placing car in 2008 car owner points earns a starting berth. This year’s field included an event-record 28 drivers, with Stewart nailing down his starting spot thanks to his 2005 Sprint Cup championship.
“I’ll take that for a debut night,” said Stewart, a three-time winner of the non-point Budweiser Shootout. “It wasn’t the prettiest third-place, but we were in the right spot at the right time. We know what we need to work on for the Daytona 500, and now we have a good start on it.”
Continue reading “Solid Debut for Tony Stewart as Driver/Owner”
Daytona 500 Qualifying Order
onDaytona 500 Qualifying Order
UPDATE: Gatorade Duel Lineups
Jeff Gordon
Kasey Kahne
David Stremme
Bobby Labonte
Kurt Busch
Brian Vickers
John Andretti
Mark Martin
Jimmie Johnson
Robby Gordon
Daytona 500 Qualifying Procedure & Rules
on
Qualifying
• One round of NASCAR Sprint Cup Series timed qualifying will be held. Each team may run two laps with the fast lap setting the qualifying time. The two fastest qualifiers set starting positions one and two and are the only guaranteed positions, filling the front row for the Daytona 500.
• The Gatorade Duels, the 150-mile qualifying races, will determine starting positions for the Daytona 500 beyond the front row. In the event of cancellation, the field will be set according to the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Rule Book.
The Final Lap Weekly 