MOTORSPORTS ROUNDUP \ News and notes

Newman wins pole: Ryan Newman, a.k.a. The "Rocketman," already considered NASCAR's best qualifier ever in only his fourth full season, showed the way again Friday night, winning his sixth straight Atlanta pole with a lap of 193.928 mph and posting the 34th pole of his career and seventh of the season. Runner-up Carl Edwards, the winner here in March, was considerably slower than Newman at 193.420 -- and very impressed with the pole winner. Tony Stewart qualified 10th, Jimmie Johnson was 12th and Greg Biffle was 16th. Among the other drivers in the Chase, sixth-place Rusty Wallace qualified 35th, seventh-place Mark Martin was fourth, eighth-place Kurt Busch was 30th, ninth-place Matt Kenseth was 23rd and 10th-place Jeremy Mayfield was 18th.
Business as usual: Jeremy Mayfield insists it's business as usual despite changing his crew chief heading into the final four races of NASCAR's Chase for the Nextel Cup championship. Richard "Slugger" Labbe was fired Thursday as Mayfield's crew chief and replaced for the rest of the season by Evernham Motorsports team director Kenny Francis. "We're not giving up," Mayfield said. "It's better now than later. I guess that's the way you've got to look at it. We'll be all right." Labbe was reportedly talking with at least one other team about a job and had also gone to team owner Ray Evernham to discuss the possibility of changing positions within that organization.
Testing: The second on-track test for NASCAR's "Car of Tomorrow" is scheduled Monday at Atlanta Motor Speedway, with six or seven teams expected to take part. Among them will be Hendrick Motorsports, with Brian Vickers driving the first of the cars it has built in the new configuration. The new cars, which NASCAR officials have said could be in competition as early as next fall's race at Talladega, are intended to be a major step forward in safety technology. They have a bigger silhouette than the current cars -- wider and higher -- move the driver toward the middle of the cockpit and have extensive new crush zones to absorb energy in crashes.
Legendary guys: Ready to celebrate its 30th anniversary in 2006, the Crown Royal International Race of Champions has announced its Legends of Victory Lane team. The four top drivers of the first 29 years, as voted by the fans, are open-wheel star Mario Andretti, NASCAR's Dale Earnhardt, road racer Scott Pruett and short track champion Steve Kinser. More than 248,000 fans voted online or at the racetracks for drivers in three categories: open-wheel, stock car and road racing. Kinser was the wild card, the fourth-highest vote getter. The four-race all-star series, with champions from different racing disciplines competing in equally prepared cars, winds up its 2005 season Saturday at Atlanta Motor Speedway, with Mark Martin needing only to start the race to wrap up his record fifth IROC championship. That will break a tie for the most titles with the late Earnhardt.
Associated Press