by Greg Cozzo
August 31, 2007
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FONTANA, Calif. – Triple digit temperatures didn’t melt Kurt
Busch’s momentum heading into the Chase for the NASCAR Nextel Cup, by
winning his 10th career pole as the #2 Miller Lite Dodge ran a fast lap of
39.474, 182.399 mph for the Sharp AQUOS 500 this Sunday at California
Speedway.
Busch spoke about the team having an interesting dilemma in preparing for
the weekend at California Speedway. Traditionally, teams normally would
bring similar race cars that also competed at California’s sister track,
Michigan International Speedway:
“It has a little less banking than most tracks. I guess drivers would
consider this a flat track. It prompted us to use our Pocono race winning
car that has more of a flat-track style set up with the way the downforce is
balanced on the car.”
This is Busch’s third pole and sixth top-10 start in 11 races at California
Speedway.
“It was just a strong day across the board. We put in a great effort”
Johnson spoke about having Busch edged out the California native by just
.001, who considers California Speedway the home track for the 2006 Nextel
Cup Champion. It Johnson’s 16th top-10 start in 2007 – one behind Series
leader Denny Hamlin.
Kasey Kahne (third) posted his 14th top-10 start in 2007 and his sixth in
eight California races where he is not only the defending race champion, but
also leads all drivers with an average finish of 7.7. “We keep qualifying
good. We just have to work on our setup for Sunday night. Hopefully, we can
figure it out and have a great race Sunday night.”
Toyota continues to make strides in their NASCAR Cup program as Team Red
Bull’s Brian Vickers (17th) was the fastest of the drivers required to make
the Sunday field on their qualifying time. Teammate A J Allmendinger (18th)
was the fastest qualifying rookie.
The day did not go so well for fellow rookie Juan Pablo Montoya who suffered
engine failure immediately after taking the green flag for qualifying.
Montoya is secured a spot in the field as he currently sits 18th in Series
points.
While capturing the pole at California Speedway does not always translate to
success by weekend’s end. In the 14 previous NASCAR Nextel Cup races at
California Speedway, the best starting position by a winner was third
(twice). Drivers from as far back as 24th, 25th, and 31st have also earned
checkered flags.
Results
| POS | CAR | DRIVER | MAKE | SPONSOR | SPEED | TIME | BEHIND |
| 1 | 2 | Kurt Busch | Dodge | Miller Lite | 182.398 | 39.474 | Leader |
| 2 | 48 | Jimmie Johnson | Chevrolet | Lowe's / Jimmie Johnson Foundation | 182.394 | 39.475 | -0.001 |
| 3 | 9 | Kasey Kahne | Dodge | Dodge Dealers / UAW | 182.020 | 39.556 | -0.082 |
| 4 | 12 | Ryan Newman | Dodge | Kodak think: | 181.415 | 39.688 | -0.214 |
| 5 | 5 | Kyle Busch | Chevrolet | Cheez-It / CARQUEST | 181.342 | 39.704 | -0.230 |
| 6 | 19 | Elliott Sadler | Dodge | Dodge Dealers / UAW | 181.333 | 39.706 | -0.232 |
| 7 | 8 | Dale Earnhardt Jr. | Chevrolet | Budweiser | 181.132 | 39.750 | -0.276 |
| 8 | 1 | Martin Truex Jr. | Chevrolet | Bass Pro Shops / Tracker | 180.818 | 39.819 | -0.345 |
| 9 | 11 | Denny Hamlin | Chevrolet | FedEx Express | 180.805 | 39.822 | -0.348 |
| 10 | 16 | Greg Biffle | Ford | Aflac | 180.605 | 39.866 | -0.392 |
| 11 | 43 | Bobby Labonte | Dodge | Cheerios / Totino's Pizza Rolls | 180.596 | 39.868 | -0.394 |
| 12 | 29 | Kevin Harvick | Chevrolet | Shell / Pennzoil | 180.542 | 39.880 | -0.406 |
| 13 | 25 | Casey Mears | Chevrolet | National Guard / GMAC | 180.542 | 39.880 | -0.406 |
| 14 | 38 | David Gilliland | Ford | M&M's | 180.533 | 39.882 | -0.408 |
| 15 | 31 | Jeff Burton | Chevrolet | Richard Childress Racing | 180.338 | 39.925 | -0.451 |
| 16 | 24 | Jeff Gordon | Chevrolet | DuPont Cromax Pro | 180.185 | 39.959 | -0.485 |
| 17 | 83 | Brian Vickers | Toyota | Red Bull | 180.144 | 39.968 | -0.494 |
| 18 | 84 | A.J. Allmendinger* | Toyota | Red Bull | 180.085 | 39.981 | -0.507 |
| 19 | 99 | Carl Edwards | Ford | Office Depot Worklife Rewards | 179.937 | 40.014 | -0.540 |
| 20 | 15 | Paul Menard* | Chevrolet | Johns Manville / Menards | 179.856 | 40.032 | -0.558 |
| 21 | 40 | David Stremme | Dodge | Target | 179.721 | 40.062 | -0.588 |
| 22 | 20 | Tony Stewart | Chevrolet | The Home Depot | 179.502 | 40.111 | -0.637 |
| 23 | 18 | J.J. Yeley | Chevrolet | Interstate Batteries | 179.497 | 40.112 | -0.638 |
| 24 | 07 | Clint Bowyer | Chevrolet | DIRECTV | 179.417 | 40.130 | -0.656 |
| 25 | 55 | Michael Waltrip | Toyota | NAPA Auto Parts | 179.332 | 40.149 | -0.675 |
| 26 | 21 | Bill Elliott | Ford | Motorcraft | 179.305 | 40.155 | -0.681 |
| 27 | 36 | Jeremy Mayfield | Toyota | 360 OTC | 179.207 | 40.177 | -0.703 |
| 28 | 00 | David Reutimann* | Toyota | Burger King | 179.202 | 40.178 | -0.704 |
| 29 | 78 | Joe Nemechek | Chevrolet | Furniture Row Racing | 179.024 | 40.218 | -0.744 |
| 30 | 22 | Dave Blaney | Toyota | Caterpillar | 178.904 | 40.245 | -0.771 |
| 31 | 41 | Reed Sorenson | Dodge | Target / Memorex | 178.824 | 40.263 | -0.789 |
| 32 | 66 | Jeff Green | Chevrolet | Best Buy | 178.594 | 40.315 | -0.841 |
| 33 | 6 | David Ragan* | Ford | AAA Insurance | 178.576 | 40.319 | -0.845 |
| 34 | 96 | Tony Raines | Chevrolet | DLP HDTV | 178.545 | 40.326 | -0.852 |
| 35 | 7 | Robby Gordon | Ford | Original Roadhouse Grill / Jim Beam | 178.372 | 40.365 | -0.891 |
| 36 | 17 | Matt Kenseth | Ford | R+L Carriers | 178.297 | 40.382 | -0.908 |
| 37 | 88 | Ricky Rudd | Ford | Snickers Generation Max | 178.258 | 40.391 | -0.917 |
| 38 | 26 | Jamie McMurray | Ford | Sharp AQUOS / 3M Vikuiti | 178.024 | 40.444 | -0.970 |
| 39 | 45 | Kyle Petty+ | Dodge | Wells Fargo | 176.796 | 40.725 | -1.251 |
| 40 | 01 | Aric Almirola+ | Chevrolet | U.S. Army | 175.204 | 41.095 | -1.621 |
| 41 | 70 | Johnny Sauter+ | Chevrolet | Haas Automation | 174.757 | 41.200 | -1.726 |
| 42 | 42 | Juan Montoya+* | Dodge | Wrigley's Big Red | - | - | - |
| 43 | 49 | John Andretti | Dodge | Paralyzed Veterans of America | 178.722 | 40.286 | -0.812 |
| Did Not Qualify | |||||||
| 44 | 10 | Scott Riggs | Dodge | Sears Auto Center / Valvoline / Stanley | 178.709 | 40.289 | -0.815 |
| 45 | 4 | Ward Burton | Chevrolet | Lucas Oil / State Water Heaters | 177.993 | 40.451 | -0.977 |
| 46 | 44 | Dale Jarrett | Toyota | UPS | 177.405 | 40.585 | -1.111 |
+ Set by Owner Points
* Denotes Rookie
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