NASCAR Newman knocks Johnson out of Nextel Cup top spot

Jamie McMurray grabbed his first Busch pole for today's race in New Hampshire.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
LOUDON, N.H. -- It was payback time for Ryan Newman on Friday at New Hampshire International Speedway.
Newman, the last of 46 drivers to make qualifying attempts, knocked NASCAR Nextel Cup points leader Jimmie Johnson out of the top spot. Johnson displaced Newman in May at Lowe's Motor Speedway.
"I told him that I was going to do my best to get him back," Newman said, grinning after winning his fourth pole of the season and first since March.
But it wasn't easy. Newman's car wiggled badly going through turns one and two on the nearly flat 1.058-mile oval on the first of his two qualifying laps.
"There was a little drama there after the first lap," Newman said. "But we got everything together after that. I'm just glad it was two laps."
Newman's lap of 132.360 mph was easily good to win for the 22nd pole of his 99-race career and third in just six tries here. Johnson, twice a winner here last year, claimed the outside of the front row with a fast lap of 131.984 in a Chevrolet.
"Ryan had a great lap in practice and backed it up with a lot of other good laps," Johnson said. "He was the guy to beat all day."
There was no drama surrounding Johnson teammate Jeff Gordon's bid for a record-tying fifth straight pole.
The four-time Cup champion, a winner of three poles and three races in New Hampshire, drew the first spot in the qualifying line and knew immediately his fast lap of 129.860 wasn't going to be good enough. In fact, the next driver in line, rookie teammate Brian Vickers, was quicker at 129.993.
They wound up 23rd and 24th in the 43-car field for Sunday's Siemens 300.
"It didn't help us drawing the number one spot but we already have a problem," Gordon said. "We were just off. We can't really seem to put our finger on it. We just can't get comfortable, and that's certainly not a good lap."
Martin Truex Jr., driving in place of injured Dale Earnhardt Jr., qualified third in a Chevy at 131.660.
Truex, who leads the Busch series standings driving for Earnhardt's Chance 2 Motorsports team, knew his qualifying run would be wiped out. Earnhardt, burned in a crash during a sports car event last Sunday, will start the race to earn championship points. The No. 8 car will have to start from the rear of the field because of the driver change.
Earnhardt, second in the standings -- 105 points behind Johnson -- plans to have Truex replace him in the car, probably early in the 300-lap race.
But driving in practice and qualifying Friday served two purposes for Truex, making his Cup debut. It gave him much-needed experience in the car and earned the team a good pit stall for the race.
"We tested here because I was going to drive a Cup race here in September for Chance 2, so I knew I could get in and do a good job and drive it as hard as I could," Truex said.
Busch Series
Jamie McMurray grabbed the first pole of his NASCAR Busch Series career on Friday at New Hampshire International Speedway.
It came on his first try in the car owned by fellow Nextel Cup star Rusty Wallace.
McMurray, who will make his sixth Busch start of the season in today's Siemens 200, turned a lap of 130.006 mph on the nearly flat 1.058-mile oval. Ron Hornaday Jr. was second at 129.428, a lap that was more than a half-second slower than the pole winner.
Jason Leffler was third at 128.959, followed by Mike Bliss at 128.937, Bobby Hamilton Jr. at 128.898 and Joe Nemechek at 128.854.
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