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Sometimes it helps to be the boss. Tony Stewart won the pole at Atlanta Motor Speedway with some advice from his Stewart Haas Racing teammate, and employee, Ryan Newman.
“That pole is 100 percent due to Ryan Newman,” Stewart said of Newman , who had qualified earlier in the evening and was able to tell the three-time Sprint Cup champion exactly how to set his car up.
“He walked back down there to help us before we went out and said there's a ton of grip out there, you've just gotta do it. I was having a hard time convincing myself that's what I was gonna do.”
The key was running his Chevrolet in the high line through turns three and four.
“That's about 2½ seconds,” Stewart who turned a lap of 186.121 mph quipped. “I'm not sure if we'd have run the line I'd planned on running we'd have been that fast. It's awesome having a teammate like. I don't ever remember being here and seeing anybody run up at the top like he did.”
More surprising than Stewart's first pole in Atlanta was that it was only the 14th pole in his 14-year, 489-race, career in NASCAR's premier series.
Stewart, known for his irony with the media, added “I'm definitely known as a qualifier.”
Roush Fenway Ford pilot, Greg Biffle, will start outside the front row after turning a lap in 29.863 seconds (185.643 mph).
“It sort of hurts to qualify second like we did today,” Biffle said.
“You know, you ask any driver after qualifying, and they could give you 100 reasons why and what they could have done better. I got down in the middle of one and two and hesitated to push the gas down; I thought the car was loose and waited and waited and thought I was gonna have to run a second lap to make up for it. I come by and they told me I was on the front row. I wish I could do it over again, but it was a great lap to put us on the front row. It gives me a lot of confidence for Sunday, both for track position and for pit selection.
Kyle Busch will start third, in a Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, with a lap of 185.493 mph. Matt Kenseth will start fourth.
“That pole is 100 percent due to Ryan Newman,” Stewart said of Newman , who had qualified earlier in the evening and was able to tell the three-time Sprint Cup champion exactly how to set his car up.
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| Tony Stewart (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR) |
“He walked back down there to help us before we went out and said there's a ton of grip out there, you've just gotta do it. I was having a hard time convincing myself that's what I was gonna do.”
The key was running his Chevrolet in the high line through turns three and four.
“That's about 2½ seconds,” Stewart who turned a lap of 186.121 mph quipped. “I'm not sure if we'd have run the line I'd planned on running we'd have been that fast. It's awesome having a teammate like. I don't ever remember being here and seeing anybody run up at the top like he did.”
More surprising than Stewart's first pole in Atlanta was that it was only the 14th pole in his 14-year, 489-race, career in NASCAR's premier series.
Stewart, known for his irony with the media, added “I'm definitely known as a qualifier.”
Roush Fenway Ford pilot, Greg Biffle, will start outside the front row after turning a lap in 29.863 seconds (185.643 mph).
“It sort of hurts to qualify second like we did today,” Biffle said.
“You know, you ask any driver after qualifying, and they could give you 100 reasons why and what they could have done better. I got down in the middle of one and two and hesitated to push the gas down; I thought the car was loose and waited and waited and thought I was gonna have to run a second lap to make up for it. I come by and they told me I was on the front row. I wish I could do it over again, but it was a great lap to put us on the front row. It gives me a lot of confidence for Sunday, both for track position and for pit selection.
Kyle Busch will start third, in a Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, with a lap of 185.493 mph. Matt Kenseth will start fourth.