Newman makes modification, earns pole
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LOUDON, N.H. - Harkening to his days driving open-wheeled USAC Silver Crown cars, NASCAR Sprint Cup star Ryan Newman yesterday climbed into an open-wheeled NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour car for the first time in his career and won the pole position for tomorrow's New Hampshire 100 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
"It's great to come here, and I enjoy this racetrack and I enjoy this area," said Newman, who recorded the first Sprint Cup victory of his career at Loudon Sept. 15, 2002, as a rookie driver with Penske Racing.
A year later, Newman established the track's Sprint Cup qualifying record (28.561 seconds).
Newman, winner of the Daytona 500, turned his fastest lap (129.891 miles per hour) on his last practice lap in a Modified fielded by Kevin "Bono" Mannion.
Then he went out in qualifying and bumped Chuck Hossfeld of Ransomville, N.Y. - second in the Whelen Modified Tour points - from the top of the speed chart with a lap of 28.695 seconds (127.453 m.p.h.) to claim his fifth career pole at NHMS.
"Kevin Mannion and the guys at [Dale Earnhardt Inc.] just kind of passed it on to me that, hey, if you want to drive the car, we're looking for a driver," said Newman, who will join Tony Stewart as the second driver at Stewart-Haas Racing next season.
"I came in and had never driven a Modified car before, but I had driven a Silver Crown. I didn't do my quickest lap in practice until my final lap, which gave me confidence going into qualifying."
Newman's lap was one second shy of the Modified track record (28.693 seconds) set by Mike Ewanitsko July 20, 2001.
"Seemed like Ryan Newman was a little more brave driving into [Turn] 1 than I was, and maybe that's what I needed, a little more guts to drive it into 1," said Hossfeld, who won the New England 100 in June by .001 seconds.
They're independent
As he sat flanked by pole sitter Peyton Sellers of Danville, Va., and Eddie McDonald of Rowley, Mass., the third qualifier, Steve Park of Northport, N.Y., pointed out something the top three qualifiers for today's Camping World Series East race, the Heluva Good! Fall 125, have in common.They were all products of independent teams, a vanishing breed in a series that used to be teeming with them.
The numbers have dwindled to a few with the infusion of Cup-funded development teams.
Park, who qualified second with a lap of 126.215 m.p.h., held the pole for much of the qualifying session until he was bumped by Sellers's fast lap of 126.437 m.p.h.
MacDonald, winner of the Camping World Series East race June 27 at NHMS, had a lap of 126.161.
"It's a credit to all of our organizations," Park said, "because racing against Joe Gibbs and [Dale Earnhardt Inc.] and all the [NASCAR Sprint] Cup teams that are out there, to have three guys like ourselves with independent teams out front, to run and qualify as good as we did is a credit to our teams and team owners."
A double for Lia
Donny Lia, the 2007 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour champion from Jericho, N.Y., will pull double duty at NHMS tomorrow, driving the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race in the No. 81 Chevrolet Silverado fielded by Patriots receiver Randy Moss. Lia, who will have to qualify and race the Randy Moss Motorsports entry on the same day, will also make his second Modified appearance of the season in the No. 96 Troyer/Joe Gibbs Driven Chevrolet . . . Matt Hirschman of Northampton, Pa., the 25-year-old son of five-time Modified Tour champion Tony Hirschman, will make his Camping World Series debut today behind the wheel of the No. 9 Dodge fielded by Gillett Evernham Motorsports . . . Joey Logano, whose debut at Richmond in the No. 02
