NASCAR notebook
Newman wins another pole LOUDON, N.H. (AP) – Ryan Newman won the pole Friday at New Hampshire International Speedway. No kidding.
Newman winning NASCAR Nextel Cup poles used to be such a regular occurrence that it was surprising when he didn’t get the job done in qualifying.
He came into the 2006 season with 35 poles in his first five seasons – far more than any other Cup driver during the same period. But NASCAR’s “Rocketman” has fizzled most of this season, winning just one pole in the first 18 races.
Worse, his performance in the races has been just as disappointing. Newman, who has never finished outside the top 10 in his Cup career, is 18th in the points and all but eliminated from contention for the Chase for the championship.
“It’s been very difficult, frustrating,” Newman said after posting a lap of 129.683 mph in Friday’s qualifying.
Jeff Burton was the runner-up at 129.651, followed by Brian Vickers at 129.626, Kyle Busch at 129.485, defending race winner Tony Stewart at 129.024, series points leader Jimmie Johnson at 128.994 and Jeff Gordon, last week’s winner at Chicagoland Speedway, at 128.976.
EMOTIONAL VISIT: Pattie Petty, wife of Nextel Cup driver Kyle Petty, made a reluctant journey this week from her North Carolina home to the Loudon track where her then 19-year-old son Adam was killed in a crash in May 2000 while practicing for a Busch Series race.
She had no plans to come here until family friend and two-time Cup champion Tony Stewart asked her to be part of a ceremony Friday in which his charitable foundation promised to donate $1 million to the Victory Junction Gang Camp, a North Carolina camp for children with chronic and life threatening illnesses built in memory of Adam Petty.
“He knew I had never been here,” Pattie Petty said. “I had never even been in the state of New Hampshire. I never even watched (a race) on TV. It was hard for Kyle to be here, too.”
Looking at the Pettys, sitting next to him, Stewart said, “Hopefully, today is a step, not just to help the camp, but to help Kyle and Pattie.
“She told me before we came in here that last night she walked around the track. I guarantee she spent a lot of time in turn three, where it all happened. I hope this makes it easier for both of them to come back to Loudon. It’s a great place to race.”
STOCK CAR ALLURE: Stewart came to NASCAR after winning an IRL championship and he isn’t surprised that open-wheel star Juan Pablo Montoya is following his lead and Danica Patrick is showing interest in making a move to stock cars.
“It’s a feather in NASCAR’s cap to have Juan Pablo coming over here,” Stewart said. “He won a title in Champ Cars and won (races) in F1.
“I don’t think there’s any reason to believe that he won’t win here. He’s extremely talented and he’s already proven that he can win in different types of race cars. There will be an adjustment for him, for sure, but it’s nothing he can’t handle.”
As for Patrick, who is in the final year of her contract with the IRL’s Rahal Letterman Racing, “It’s the same with Danica.
“She’s very talented. You don’t get to where she is in her career without talent,” Stewart said. “She’s capable of winning races in the IRL and if she came to NASCAR she’d be capable of winning here, too.
“It might take a while because there is a transition that has to be made from Indy cars to stock cars, but she could do it.”
Stewart said he expects other open-wheel racers to make the move to NASCAR.
“It’s the product,” he said. “NASCAR has done a great job of building this series into what it is today. Not only is there a lot of desire for fans to come watch us race, but now there’s more desire than ever from drivers outside of NASCAR to come here and race.
“Steady, consistent leadership and a great product are the reasons why the sport is so strong.”