NASCAR Newman is Subway pole-sitter

Six of the top 10 spots for the 400 are occupied by Intrepids.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
ROCKINGHAM, N.C. -- Ryan Newman put himself in a familiar spot Friday -- on the pole.
Newman, who led NASCAR's elite series with 11 poles last season, earned the top starting spot at North Carolina Speedway for the second consecutive race at the track with a lap of 156.475 mph.
"It's been a long drought," he said sarcastically. "It feels good to be back."
Newman, in his third season, has proven to be a master of qualifying. In 82 career starts, he has 19 poles and three of them have come at The Rock.
Redemption
By taking the top spot for the Subway 400 on Sunday, he made up for a poor qualifying effort in the season-opening Daytona 500 last weekend that had crew chief Matt Borland wondering what happened.
"I was teasing Borland last week, and I said maybe if we just drove the car backward it would go faster," Newman said. "We didn't qualify well, so we looked forward to coming back here."
Newman led a strong Dodge qualifying effort, with six of the top 10 spots going to Intrepids. But if the Dodges are far superior, he wasn't saying.
"I don't think they have an advantage, and I wouldn't tell you if we did," he said. "I think its just coincidence."
Jamie McMurray qualified second in a Dodge with a lap of 155.379 around the 1.017-mile oval, and rookie Kasey Kahne was third in an Intrepid.
Rusty Wallace, Newman's teammate at Penske Racing South, qualified fourth and felt good about his chances on Sunday after testing here.
"I felt like it was necessary we did that, and now it's paying off," said Wallace, winless in the last 99 races. "I think I'm going to win on Sunday, I really do. We ran great and we've got a great car."
Chevy slips in
Jeff Gordon was the first non-Dodge driver, qualifying fifth in a Chevrolet.
Jeremy Mayfield was sixth in a Dodge and was followed by Daytona 500 winner Dale Earnhardt Jr. in a Chevy. Jeff Green was next in a Dodge, followed by Dale Jarrett and Greg Biffle in Fords.
Jarrett is the defending race winner, coming from the ninth spot for his only victory of last season.
"Hopefully we'll have a repeat performance," he said. "It's been a good day for us and hopefully that will translate into a good day on Sunday."
NASCAR nearly missed a full field of 43 for the Nextel Cup. Although 45 cars showed up for qualifying, Andy Belmont wrecked with Morgan Shepherd in practice and didn't have a backup car to try to make the race.
Shepherd's car also was damaged, preventing him from getting any practice in. NASCAR won't let a driver attempt to make the race without running at least one lap during practice.
That meant only 43 cars made qualifying attempts, and the back of the grid was rounded out with a bevy of field-fillers: Carl Long, Andy Hillenburg, Kirk Shelmerdine and Joe Ruttman.
Busch Series qualifying
Johnny Benson won the first Busch series pole of his career Friday, putting his Dodge on the front row at North Carolina Speedway.
Benson ran a lap at 153.169 mph around the 1.017-mile oval to earn the top starting spot for the Goody's Headache Power 200 today. That edged David Stremme, who posted a lap at 152.455 mph to qualify second in a Dodge.
Benson, the 1995 Busch series champion, is back in the division after losing his Nextel Cup ride with four races left last season. By earning his first pole, he's off to the right start.