Newman nails down a third straight pole

Newman nails down a third straight pole
Teammate Busch penalized for reckless driving.

Published Saturday, June 9, 2007

LONG POND, Pa. (AP) - Ryan Newman ended Denny Hamlin’s Pocono perfection.

Newman showed again he has the qualifying part of race weekend figured out. Now all he wants is to be in front when the checkered flag drops.

Newman raced to his third straight pole and 41st overall with a lap of 170.062 at Pocono Raceway yesterday. He also took the top spot at Lowe’s Motor Speedway and again last week at Dover International Speedway.

He has four poles overall this year with no wins. His best finish came Monday at Dover, when he finished second behind Martin Truex Jr. His last win came nearly two years ago.

"It’d be nice to click off three wins in a row, not just three poles in a row," Newman said.

Newman’s lap spoiled Hamlin’s run of winning everything at Pocono. Hamlin qualified second after he won two poles and two races last year in his first two trips to the 2.5-mile triangle track.

Hamlin will have to aim for winning the Pocono 500. He could join Bobby Allison (1982-83) and Tim Richmond (1986-87) as the only drivers to win three consecutive races at Pocono.

"I’m real happy with where we ended up," Hamlin said. "I definitely feel we have a car that can win on Sunday."

Truex followed his first career Cup victory by qualifying third. Kyle Busch and Clint Bowyer round out the top five. Points leader Jeff Gordon starts 18th, and Columbia native Carl Edwards qualified 32nd.

Newman holds the pole in the first race since longtime NASCAR chairman Bill France Jr. died on Monday. The flags at Pocono Raceway, and many others flying from haulers, were lowered to half staff.

Newman’s run also salvaged the day for car owner Roger Penske. Teammate Kurt Busch was docked 100 driver points, fined $100,000 and placed on probation for the rest of the year for reckless driving and endangering a crew member on pit road.

Newman - who has 12 career victories - has seen his trips to victory lane almost dry up since winning eight races in 2003. He won only three more times since ’03, leaving poles as one of the highlights of his season and left hoping he can return to his winning form.