#12-Ryan Newman won the pole for the Coca Cola 600 at Lowe’s Motor Speedway with a new track record of 192.988mph, breaking his own track record set last Oct of 188.877mph. Twenty-two driver broke the old track record thanks to the levigation [smoothing] that was done this past spring. The Budweiser pole is the 4th of 2004 for Newman and 31st of his career. Newman has won three career races from the pole. Did ya know? all four of Newman’s 2004 poles have been at SMI tracks: Las Vegas, Atlanta, Texas, Lowe’s.
#24-Jeff Gordon is on the outside pole with the rest of the top-five being #17-Matt Kenseth, #9-Kasey Kahne and #48-Jimmie Johnson. Missing the race were #11-Leffler [was 37th fastest], #32-Hamilton Jr., #66-Sadler, #36-Said, #34-Fuller, #00-Long, #92-Raines, #75-Garvey and #27-Shelmerdine. #13-Sacks withdrew after running slow in practice.
The speed of 192.988mph moves Lowe’s Motor Speedway in 2nd for the fastest CURRENT race track on the tour with only Atlanta faster.
See starting lineup, qualifying results, pole progression, top-35 how they did, practice results on Jayski’s Semi-Live Qualifying Page.(5-26-2005)
