Newman clinches pole

Newman circled the 1-mile oval in 28.776sec (132.360mph), beating Johnson by nearly a tenth of a second. Johnson came in at 28.858sec.

Martin Truex, filling in for injured Dale Earnhardt Jr. in the No. 8 Budweiser car, filled the bill nicely, qualifying third. Truex, with four wins and five poles for DEI in the Busch Series this year, is familiar with the flat New Hampshire track as a former campaigner in Busch North.

Michael Waltrip, whose numbers have improved through the summer, qualified fourth, with Jamie McMurray, who earlier in the day won the pole for the Busch preliminary, taking the fifth spot.

Newman, who scored his first career victory here in 2002, has four poles this year and three second-place starts. His finishes since May, however, have been poor. A broken engine at Charlotte and wrecks at Pocono and Joliet have left him 10th in points, with only 10 eligible for the championship under NASCAR's new format.

Newman, who tested here early in the month, appreciated the turn of fortune. "We knew we had the potential to do it," he said. "It was just a matter of getting it done. I'm happy to do it for the guys. They put a lot of work into what we did here today. That one-day test helped us a good bit."

Newman said he thought he had given back the chance on the first of his two laps.

"I was trying to run really hard and got up in the marbles," he said. "Once I did that, I threw the first lap away and got set up for the second lap. It made it a little tougher because you've got a one-lap shot. I guess the second bullet is the one that made the kill."

Truex will stand in as needed for Earnhardt, who suffered burns while practising for the Sonoma ALMS race last weekend. Earnhardt was not seriously hurt but has been advised not to work out in a hot race car for fear of infecting his wounds. The plan is for Truex to qualify and practice in the car while Earnhardt will start Sunday's race in order to collect the points before handing over to Truex.

"There's no pressure on me at all," said Truex, reminded that Junior is second in points. "The guys told me last night - maybe they were lying to me to make me feel better - but they said they were in this for last-place points and anything over that was a bonus."

Jeff Gordon, who had won a record-tying four poles in a row headed here, fell off the pace and was good enough only for 24th. "We were just off," he said. "We can't really seem to put our finger on it."

Only three drivers failed to make the grade, one being Busch star Kyle Busch, making one of his rare tries in Cup. Busch crashed on his qualifying lap and had no points for a provisional.