Newman takes another Dover pole

Newman set a fastest lap of 23.541 seconds at an average speed of 152.925 mph driving his No. 12 Alltel Dodge Avenger.

He bumped Dale Earnhardt Jr from pole by only 0.083 seconds to claim his fourth pole position at Dover, the 40th of his Nextel Cup career and his first with the Car of Tomorrow.

"It was a really good lap, no doubt," said Newman. "We didn't have a very good practice actually, but we made some adjustments. I was really happy with the improvements we made and now I just look forward to Sunday and the rest of the weekend."

Despite already being on pole three times this season, Newman has yet to capitalise on his good starting positions. This time, however, his race could be boosted by having the best pit allocation possible thanks to his pole, in one of the tightest pits of the season.

Earnhardt Jr showed that his long time crew chief Tony Eury Jr is not being missed very much this weekend as he claimed his best qualifying position of the season for the second race in a row. He will start from the front row for the first time this year.

"I didn't feel that fast in the car, but it was a clean lap," Earnhardt said. "The car handled great.

"We're coming here without any testing and we're feeling a little limited on the knowledge of this car. I just tried to get out there and do something clean and not making mistakes and we were able to do that and get a good lap."

Two Dodges will start Sunday's race from the second row of the grid with Bobby Labonte, who achieved his best qualifying of the year so far; and Kasey Kahne, who held on to pole position for a while in the early part of the session.

Carl Edwards rounded up the top five, ahead of Nextel Cup points leader and four-time winner at Dover Jeff Gordon.

Gordon was the fastest of the Hendrick drivers, as Jimmie Johnson was three tenths slower and finished 25th while Coca-Cola 600 winner Casey Mears was a disappointing 48th - although he will start the race from 41st on the grid due to his car-owner points status.

Scott Riggs was fastest among the drivers who had to qualify on speed, ending up 11th quickest. He bumped Toyota's Dave Blaney out of the field for Sunday's race, while Ward Burton and Bill Elliot surprised with 13th and 14th, also qualifying on speed.

Another surprise was Michael Waltrip, who will make only his second start of the season after struggling to make the grid for the past 11 races. He will start 23rd, just behind his teammate Dale Jarrett.

"I'm thankful for the fact that we brought a car here that when we unloaded it we could tune on," said Waltrip.

"There's been too many times when we showed up with a car that was out in left field and we had to try to get it competitive. But, today we unloaded and we were competitive. That's the difference today."

Amazingly low on the starting order will be the Joe Gibbs pair of Tony Stewart and Denny Hamlin who could only manage both to make it to the 15th row of the grid. Their teammate JJ Yeley will line up one row behind them.

Juan Pablo Montoya qualified 16th in only his first time at the 'Monster Mile'. Early on he was fifth fastest once he had completed his only lap, as he brushed the wall on his second one.

"I got in the gas and I just got a little loose coming out of the corner, just scraped [the wall], about three inches of the car," Montoya said.

"It was a good lap. We run three hundredths faster than practice. It's a shame. I thought we had a bit more in the car."

Both Red Bull Toyotas were able to carry their momentum and will start the race from 34th with Brian Vickers while AJ Allmendinger was the slowest of the drivers qualifying on speed and will line up last.

Dave Blaney, Paul Menard, Kenny Wallace, David Reutimann, Mike Bills and Kevin Lepage did not qualify for Sunday's race.

Pos  Driver              Make       Speed     Time
 1.  Ryan Newman         Dodge      152.925   23.541
 2.  Dale Earnhardt Jr   Chevrolet  152.387   23.624 + 0.083
 3.  Bobby Labonte       Dodge      152.304   23.637 + 0.096
 4.  Kasey Kahne         Dodge      152.040   23.678 + 0.137
 5.  Carl Edwards        Ford       151.835   23.710 + 0.169
 6.  Jeff Gordon         Chevrolet  151.553   23.754 + 0.213
 7.  Elliott Sadler      Dodge      151.471   23.767 + 0.226
 8.  Jamie McMurray      Ford       151.305   23.793 + 0.252
 9.  Jeff Burton         Chevrolet  151.203   23.809 + 0.268
10.  Greg Biffle         Ford       151.127   23.821 + 0.280
11.  Scott Riggs         Dodge      151.127   23.821 + 0.280
12.  Kurt Busch          Dodge      151.064   23.831 + 0.290
13.  Ward Burton         Chevrolet  150.975   23.845 + 0.304
14.  Bill Elliott        Ford       150.804   23.872 + 0.331
15.  Clint Bowyer        Chevrolet  150.735   23.883 + 0.342
16.  Juan Montoya        Dodge      150.665   23.894 + 0.353
17.  Matt Kenseth        Ford       150.634   23.899 + 0.358
18.  Kevin Harvick       Chevrolet  150.521   23.917 + 0.376
19.  Kyle Busch          Chevrolet  150.514   23.918 + 0.377
20.  Jeremy Mayfield     Toyota     150.470   23.925 + 0.384
21.  Mark Martin         Chevrolet  150.401   23.936 + 0.395
22.  Dale Jarrett        Toyota     150.307   23.951 + 0.410
23.  Michael Waltrip     Toyota     150.294   23.953 + 0.412
24.  Brian Vickers       Toyota     150.219   23.965 + 0.424
25.  Tony Raines         Chevrolet  150.000   24.000 + 0.459
26.  Martin Truex Jr     Chevrolet  149.975   24.004 + 0.463
27.  Jimmie Johnson      Chevrolet  149.682   24.051 + 0.510
28.  Reed Sorenson       Dodge      149.638   24.058 + 0.517
29.  Denny Hamlin        Chevrolet  149.539   24.074 + 0.533
30.  Tony Stewart        Chevrolet  149.477   24.084 + 0.543
31.  David Ragan         Ford       149.477   24.084 + 0.543
32.  JJ Yeley            Chevrolet  149.322   24.109 + 0.568
33.  Robby Gordon        Ford       149.272   24.117 + 0.576
34.  David Stremme       Dodge      149.056   24.152 + 0.611
35.  Joe Nemechek        Chevrolet  148.982   24.164 + 0.623
36.  David Gilliland     Ford       148.926   24.173 + 0.632
37.  Sterling Marlin     Chevrolet  148.693   24.211 + 0.670
38.  Jeff Green          Chevrolet  148.650   24.218 + 0.677
39.  Kyle Petty          Dodge      148.490   24.244 + 0.703
40.  Ricky Rudd          Ford       148.417   24.256 + 0.715
41.  Casey Mears         Chevrolet  146.181   24.627 + 1.086
42.  Johnny Sauter       Chevrolet  143.615   25.067 + 1.526
43.  AJ Allmendinger     Toyota     149.669   24.053 + 0.512