Qualifying: Stewart finds form
Tony Stewart made a halting return to his championship form from last year by claiming pole position for Sunday's Winston Cup race at Chicagoland Speedway
The reigning champion was made to wait for the honour, however, as heavy rain delayed the session for nearly two hours. Stewart ran in the middle of the order and set a time of 22.223s (184.786mph) around the 1.5-mile oval, and was then forced to sit and watch as Jeff Gordon tried, without success, to beat his time.
Stewart thus won his first pole of the season and first since Atlanta last autumn. He has won one race this year, at Pocono, but the team largely has sputtered due to various misfortunes.
"We're doing the same things we do every week," said Stewart, who sees himself as a better racer than qualifier. "Hopefully we'll get some luck turned around. We haven't had the luck we had end of last year."
Gordon came in late for second at 29.277s, despite being laid low by a respiratory infection earlier in the week. Bill Elliott, who has qualified in the top-four for each of the three events held at the track, was third, followed by a surprisingly strong performance from rookie Casey Mears. Jeremy Mayfield was fifth, with Jimmie Johnson sixth.
Teams fined for Daytona rules violations
Qualifying cancelled due to rain
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