Ryan Newman won the Bud Pole for the Kobalt Tools 500, his 38th Bud Pole 192nd career Nextel Cup races. .. This is his first start better than 19th in 2007 and his first Bud Pole since New Hampshire last July. .. This is Newman’s seventh Bud Pole at Atlanta Motor Speedway. He posted six straight Bud Poles here, sweeping 2003 through 2005. Newman has started from the top 10 in 10 of his 11 Atlanta races, including nine starts from the front row. .. There have been four different Bud Pole winners in the first four races of 2007. .. Seventy-four of the 95 Nextel Cup races at Atlanta have been won from the top-10 starting positions, including nine of the last 12. .. Mike Bliss was the fastest of the 16 drivers that had to make the field on time and qualified for his first race of 2007. His last race was at Homestead in the 2006 season finale. .. None of the three races this season have been won by a top-10 starter. The best start by a race winner to this point in 2007 is 23rd by Jimmie Johnson at Las Vegas. .. Only six of the 30 top-10 starters have finished in the top 10 in the first three races of 2007.(NASCAR Media)(3-16-2007)
