Newman on Cup pole at Pocono

The Penske driver brought some good news to his team after NASCAR announced heavy penalties for his teammate Kurt Busch for an incident at Dover last Monday. Busch also crashed during practice in the morning.

Newman was the only driver able to lap within the 52-second bracket, with a time of 52.922 seconds at an average speed of 170.062 mph in his No. 12 Dodge.

He was more than two tenths of a second faster than race favourite Denny Hamlin, who had a later qualifying draw but did not find as much speed as the Penske driver.

"It was a good run," said Newman after claiming his fourth pole of the season. "The car has been fast off the truck, which makes a huge difference. We only did six laps in practice and very small changes all day today.

"It's nice to get three in a row, just to have track position and pit selection; you start off the right foot. It's a track where it's not really easy to pass. You can pass, but you rather be up front."

Hamlin, who swept both poles and victories at Pocono as a rookie last year, was happy with his result as he seems more focused on getting his first win of the season, knowing he has the same car that took him to victory lane a year ago.

"I thought it was not too bad here," said Hamlin. "We still had a really good run and was very happy with that. We picked up about a second from practice.

"In regards to qualifying, we knew we were probably going to give up a little bit there. But we know in race- trim our car is going to be very tough [to beat]."

Martin Truex Jr was able to carry the momentum from his maiden Cup win at Dover last Monday and was third in his best qualifying effort of the year. Kyle Busch was fastest among the Hendrick drivers and will start Sunday's race from fourth on the grid.

Reigning Nextel Cup champion Jimmie Johnson, who had been fastest in practice, ended up in seventh and more than half a second off from Newman's pole. He will share the fourth row with Kasey Kahne, who sat on provisional pole for a while despite a very early qualifying draw.

Brian Vickers excelled as usual at the 2.5-mile tri-oval and achieved his best qualifying of the season with ninth. He was obviously the fastest Toyota driver and also the quickest of those who needed to qualify on speed, although he felt he could have pushed a bit harder.

"I was a little loose all the way around the race track on that lap and I probably could have pushed it a little more," said Vickers.

"But with our situation, if you push it and you're a little loose then you could potentially go home. I'm excited about our lap and really looking forward to Sunday."

Points-leader Jeff Gordon qualified 18th and was the slowest of the Hendrick cars, running nearly a second off from the pole position time.

Meanwhile Juan Pablo Montoya had a difficult qualifying in his first time at Pocono. Despite running respectable times in practice, he backed off during his run after nearly hitting the wall out of turn two. He will start Sunday's race from 38th.

"[The car] was really tight, nearly hit the wall coming out of two so I just checked-up," Montoya said. "It's three corners. The car works good, you look good. The car works bad then you look bad. It's the same for everybody.

"Turn 3 is probably the toughest corner but when the car feels good and you can commit to it, then you'll be good. But when the car doesn't give you what you want it's very hard."

Michael Waltrip was bumped from the grid on the last minute by Dave Blaney, making it two of his team's cars out of the race, as Dale Jarret also failed to qualify. Kenny Wallace, Jeremy Mayfield, Kevin Lepage and Mike Bliss have also packed up and gone home.

Pos  Driver              Make        Speed      Time
 1.  Ryan Newman         Dodge       170.062    52.922
 2.  Denny Hamlin        Chevrolet   169.278    53.167 + 0.245
 3.  Martin Truex Jr     Chevrolet   168.710    53.346 + 0.424
 4.  Kyle Busch          Chevrolet   168.139    53.527 + 0.605
 5.  Clint Bowyer        Chevrolet   168.058    53.553 + 0.631
 6.  Tony Stewart        Chevrolet   167.998    53.572 + 0.650
 7.  Jimmie Johnson      Chevrolet   167.942    53.590 + 0.668
 8.  Kasey Kahne         Dodge       167.436    53.752 + 0.830
 9.  Brian Vickers       Toyota      167.336    53.784 + 0.862
10.  Jeff Burton         Chevrolet   167.274    53.804 + 0.882
11.  JJ Yeley            Chevrolet   167.268    53.806 + 0.884
12.  Casey Mears         Chevrolet   166.976    53.900 + 0.978
13.  Dale Earnhardt Jr   Chevrolet   166.957    53.906 + 0.984
14.  Dave Blaney         Toyota      166.939    53.912 + 0.990
15.  Elliott Sadler      Dodge       166.936    53.913 + 0.991
16.  David Gilliland     Ford        166.920    53.918 + 0.996
17.  Tony Raines         Chevrolet   166.917    53.919 + 0.997
18.  Jeff Gordon         Chevrolet   166.824    53.949 + 1.027
19.  Kevin Harvick       Chevrolet   166.648    54.006 + 1.084
20.  Ward Burton         Chevrolet   166.568    54.032 + 1.110
21.  Paul Menard         Chevrolet   166.457    54.068 + 1.146
22.  Reed Sorenson       Dodge       166.405    54.085 + 1.163
23.  David Reutimann     Toyota      166.362    54.099 + 1.177
24.  Matt Kenseth        Ford        166.319    54.113 + 1.191
25.  Jamie McMurray      Ford        166.187    54.156 + 1.234
26.  Bobby Labonte       Dodge       166.168    54.162 + 1.240
27.  Kurt Busch          Dodge       166.119    54.178 + 1.256
28.  AJ Allmendinger     Toyota      166.070    54.194 + 1.272
29.  David Stremme       Dodge       165.981    54.223 + 1.301
30.  Ricky Rudd          Ford        165.789    54.286 + 1.364
31.  Scott Riggs         Dodge       165.715    54.310 + 1.388
32.  Carl Edwards        Ford        165.670    54.325 + 1.403
33.  Joe Nemechek        Chevrolet   165.627    54.339 + 1.417
34.  Mark Martin         Chevrolet   165.411    54.410 + 1.488
35.  Chad McCumbee       Dodge       165.383    54.419 + 1.497
36.  David Ragan         Ford        165.177    54.487 + 1.565
37.  Robby Gordon        Ford        165.141    54.499 + 1.577
38.  Juan Montoya        Dodge       165.104    54.511 + 1.589
39.  Jeff Green          Chevrolet   163.782    54.951 + 2.029
40.  Johnny Sauter       Chevrolet   162.537    55.372 + 2.450
41.  Greg Biffle         Ford        161.178    55.839 + 2.917
42.  Sterling Marlin     Chevrolet   N/A
43.  Bill Elliott        Ford        Champion's Provisional -