#48-Jimmie Johnson won the Budweiser Pole for the USG Sheetrock 400 at Chicagoland Speedway with a new track record speed of 188.147mph for his first pole since Lowe’s Motor Speedway in May 2004, 41 races ago. The pole is the first of 2005 [he started first at Dover in 2005 due to bad weather that cancelled qualifying] and the 8th of his career. In five races, there have been five different pole sitters: Todd Bodine, Ryan Newman, Tony Stewart, Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson. Six drivers broke the track record: #120Ryan Newman will start 2nd, followed by #41-Casey Mears, #17-Matt Kenseth, #01-Joe Nemechek and #16-Greg Biffle. #8-Dale Earnhardt Jr. will start 25th. Missing the race were #92-Kenny Wallace, #34-P.J. Jones, #66-Mike Garvey and #75-Wayne Anderson. #20-Tony Stewart is back at the track after suffering a hard crash in Friday’s practice, Stewart is OK, but J.J. Yeley qualified the car 13th. Stewart will practice a bit on Saturday nd plans to run the race, he will have to fall to the rear of the field before the drop of the greem flag.
For qualifying results, pole progrssion and starting lineup and links on my Jayski’s Chicago Qualifying/Practice/Starting Grid Page.(7-8-2005)
