Mears takes Cup pole in Chicago
Casey Mears grabbed pole position for the USG Sheetrock 400 at Chicagoland Speedway, claiming his first Nextel Cup pole of the season
Mears set a fastest lap of 29.580 seconds at an average speed 182.556mph around the 1.5-mile oval, on the way to his first pole since last year's Brickyard 400, and the third of his career in the Nextel Cup.
Last year, he took his maiden Busch Series win at Chicagoland, only a day before Juan Pablo Montoya was announced as his replacement at Chip Ganassi Racing. Mears had also been on pole for the Busch race three years ago, so he is no stranger to success at this weekend's venue.
"This is our Charlotte car that we won the race with," Mears said.
"Right out of the gate it felt real fast and I told them that we had a shot at it and we came home with pole today. It was awesome.
"[Turns] one and two were pretty much in the sun but three and four were in the shade and it helped us out a little bit. It was definitely something that you had to think about. It was actually pretty timely that we had to wait a little bit longer and got a little bit better conditions."
Martin Truex Jr was second, lapping only 0.013 seconds from Mears' time and claiming his best qualifying effort of the year thus far. He beat Ryan Newman to the front row by just two thousandths of a second.
Mark Martin and 2005 event-winner Dale Earnhardt Jr rounded up the top five in a session dominated by the Chevrolet Monte Carlos.
Hendrick Motorsports already look to be in good shape for the race. Besides Mears' pole, Kyle Busch will be starting sixth, Jimmie Johnson eighth and last year's winner Jeff Gordon from eleventh.
John Andretti, filling in for Kyle Petty in the No. 45 Dodge, was the fastest of the non-regulars, putting his car ninth on the grid, one place ahead of Matt Kenseth, who was the best qualified Ford Fusion of the day.
Dave Blaney was the fastest Toyota qualifier as usual in 15th, just behind two-time event winner Kevin Harvick. Also driving a Toyota, Michael Waltrip qualified 28th and will make his fourth start of the year on Sunday.
Juan Pablo Montoya was 30th in his first day behind the wheel at Chicagoland. A year after having announced his NASCAR move, he had a tough day in his No. 42 Dodge, which features a special red livery for this race, replacing the Havoline logos for the Big Red Wrigley's ones.
"It's not fast enough here I guess," Montoya said after his run. "I was pretty tight coming out of four and maybe lost a tenth there, maybe a bit more. But we only ran like eight one hundredths slower than practice.
"We tried different things but I guess that's as fast as the car is going to run today. The way the car was tight there the second lap was going to be a lot worse."
Both Red Bull cars failed to make the field for the sixth time this year, while Scott Riggs, Dale Jarrett, Kevin Lepage and Kenny Wallace were also unable to break on to the grid for Sunday's race.
Pos Driver Make Speed Time
1. Casey Mears Chevrolet 182.556 29.580
2. Martin Truex Jr Chevrolet 182.476 29.593 + 0.013
3. Ryan Newman Dodge 182.463 29.595 + 0.015
4. Mark Martin Chevrolet 182.297 29.622 + 0.042
5. Dale Earnhardt Jr Chevrolet 182.272 29.626 + 0.046
6. Kyle Busch Chevrolet 181.885 29.689 + 0.109
7. Clint Bowyer Chevrolet 181.653 29.727 + 0.147
8. Jimmie Johnson Chevrolet 181.580 29.739 + 0.159
9. John Andretti Dodge 181.427 29.764 + 0.184
10. Matt Kenseth Ford 181.409 29.767 + 0.187
11. Jeff Gordon Chevrolet 181.330 29.780 + 0.200
12. Bobby Labonte Dodge 181.263 29.791 + 0.211
13. Denny Hamlin Chevrolet 181.226 29.797 + 0.217
14. Kevin Harvick Chevrolet 181.147 29.810 + 0.230
15. Dave Blaney Toyota 181.038 29.828 + 0.248
16. Paul Menard Chevrolet 180.959 29.841 + 0.261
17. Bill Elliott Ford 180.808 29.866 + 0.286
18. Johnny Sauter Chevrolet 180.693 29.885 + 0.305
19. Tony Stewart Chevrolet 180.638 29.894 + 0.314
20. Jeremy Mayfield Toyota 180.632 29.895 + 0.315
21. David Reutimann Toyota 180.602 29.900 + 0.320
22. Reed Sorenson Dodge 180.536 29.911 + 0.331
23. Jeff Burton Chevrolet 180.463 29.923 + 0.343
24. Kasey Kahne Dodge 180.319 29.947 + 0.367
25. Carl Edwards Ford 180.312 29.948 + 0.368
26. Chad Chaffin Dodge 180.210 29.965 + 0.385
27. Joe Nemechek Chevrolet 180.198 29.967 + 0.387
28. Michael Waltrip Toyota 180.174 29.971 + 0.391
29. Jeff Green Chevrolet 180.150 29.975 + 0.395
30. Juan Montoya Dodge 179.910 30.015 + 0.435
31. Elliott Sadler Dodge 179.874 30.021 + 0.441
32. David Ragan Ford 179.850 30.025 + 0.445
33. Greg Biffle Ford 179.778 30.037 + 0.457
34. Jamie McMurray Ford 179.671 30.055 + 0.475
35. Kurt Busch Dodge 179.653 30.058 + 0.478
36. J.J. Yeley Chevrolet 179.563 30.073 + 0.493
37. Sterling Marlin Chevrolet 179.444 30.093 + 0.513
38. David Stremme Dodge 179.354 30.108 + 0.528
39. Robby Gordon Ford 178.749 30.210 + 0.630
40. Tony Raines Chevrolet 178.731 30.213 + 0.633
41. Ricky Rudd Ford 178.601 30.235 + 0.655
42. David Gilliland Ford 178.182 30.306 + 0.726
43. Ward Burton Chevrolet 179.581 30.070 + 0.490
Did not qualify:
Scott Riggs Dodge 179.134 30.145 + 0.565
Brian Vickers Toyota 178.980 30.171 + 0.591
Dale Jarrett Toyota 178.766 30.207 + 0.627
A.J. Allmendinger Toyota 178.642 30.228 + 0.648
Kevin Lepage Dodge 178.353 30.277 + 0.697
Kenny Wallace Chevrolet 178.200 30.303 + 0.723
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