Indianapolis
News-Sentinel photos and story by Chad Ryan
Reed Sorenson captured his first Nextel Cup Series pole position on Saturdya to become the youngest driver to win the pole for a major race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. NASCAR rookie Juan Pablo Montoya will join him on the front row as the Chip Ganassi Racing teammates claimed the top two spots for Sunday’s Allstate 400 at the Brickyard Nextel Cup Series race.
Running second in the qualifying order, Sorenson posted the fast lap of 184.207 mph that held up as 47 other drivers tried to knock him off the top spot.
“This is a great place to get our first pole,” Sorenson said. “I’m pretty excited. I know it means a lot to Chip (Ganassi) and for everybody involved, and hopefully we can stay up there all day (Sunday). I think we’ve got a pretty good racecar.”
With David Stremme’s qualifying position, Ganassi placed his whole team in the top 12 spots.
“We showed up here today, and all our cars were quick,” Ganassi said. “We were working as a team, and it paid off.”
Rounding out the top five spots, Ryan Newman qualified third, Dale Earnhardt, Jr., took the fourth spot and Kasey Kahne drove into fifth. Earnhardt took the track first in the qualifying order and ran a lap speed of 183.419 mph. He had been running in the top five all day during practice, and fast lap during practice would’ve put him in the second position.
Other notables were Mark Martin at No. 13 and Tony Stewart at 14. Last year’s race winner, Jimmie Johnson qualified at 19 and Jeff Gordon came in 21st.
The 14th running of the Allstate 400 is set to start at 2:00 p.m. Sunday and will be broadcast live on ESPN.
For more race coverage go to News-Sentinel.com and the new community photo sharing site CU
Juan Pablo Montoya, left, talks to J.J. Yeley on pit road during qualifications on Saturday for the 14th running of the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard.
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