April 3, 2009
- Reutimann wins pole at Texas: #00-David Reutimann won the Coors Light Pole Award for the Samsung 500 at Texas Motor Speedway with a lap of 190.517mph for his 1st pole of 2009 and 2nd career pole. Points leader #24-Jeff Gordon will start 2nd, followed by #17-Kenseth, #6-Ragan, #98-Menard, #9-Kahne, #14-Stewart, #18-Busch, #48-Johnson and #20-Logano.
The seven non top-35 drivers to make the race: #09-Bliss, #71-Gilliland, #78-Smith, #21-Elliott, #13-Papis, #25-Keselowski, #8-Almirola and #66-Blaney.
Missing the race are: #87-Nemechek, #82-Speed, #41-Mayfield, #64-Bodine and #36-Riggs.
See qualifying results, starting lineup, pole progression and more on my Texas Starting Lineup/Qualifying Results page.(4-3-2009)
- Qualifying Fast Facts – Texas Motor Speedway
#00-David Reutimann won the Coors Light Pole Award for the SAMSUNG 500 with a lap of 28.344 seconds, 190.517 mph.
This is his second pole in 70 Sprint Cup Series races. His first pole came at Homestead in 2008.
This is his first pole and fourth top-10 start in 2009.
This is his first pole in four races at Texas Motor Speedway.
One driver has won a Texas Sprint Cup Series race from the pole — Kasey Kahne in the 2006 spring race.
#24-Jeff Gordon (second) posted his fifth top-10 start of 2009 and his 11th in 17 races at Texas Motor Speedway.
#17-Matt Kenseth (third) posted his sixth top-10 start at Texas Motor Speedway. It is his second in seven races this season.
#20-Joey Logano (10th) was the fastest qualifying rookie.(NASCAR Statistics)(4-3-2009)
- Pole Progression: (who had the pole first, who got it next and who ended up with it)
#98-Menard, 1st out to qualify, 189.907mph, starts 5th
#6-Ragan, 3rd out, 189.934, starts 4th
#17-Kenseth, 10th out, 189.954, starts 3rd
#24-Gordon, 13th out, 190.194, starts 2nd
#00-Reutimann, 17th out, 190.517, starts 1st
- Fastest Qualifier by Manufacturer::
Chevy: #24-Gordon, 190.194, starts 2nd
Dodge: #9-Kahne, 189.900, starts 6th
Ford: #17-Kenseth, 189.954, starts 3rd
Toyota: #00-Reutimann, 190.517,starts 1st
- Rookie of the Year Candidates: how fast were they and where do they start:
#13-Max Papis (X), 186.496mph, starts 39th
#20-Joey Logano, 189.268mph, starts 10th
#82-Scott Speed (X), 185.790, starts DNQ
X = needed to race their way in to the race
DNQ = Did not qualify for race
- Qualifying Order for the Samsung 500 at Texas Motor Speedway is posted. 48 cars/drivers are listed. Go-or-go homers will qualify at the end of the session, once the top-35 drivers are done. The first of the top-35 drivers scheduled to go out is #98-Menard, the final top-35 driver scheduled is #1-Truex Jr. The first go-or-go homer scheduled to qualify [36th] is #09-Bliss, and the final driver scheduled to qualify is #87-Nemechek. See the full qualifying order on the Texas Qualifying Page.(4-3-2009)
- Friday Practice for the Samsung 500 at Texas Motor Speedway is over, the top 5:
#5-Martin 189.693
#00-Reutimann 189.553
#2-Busch 189.547
#16-Biffle 189.016
#48-Johnson 188.983
slowest: #64-Bodine 184.118 & #36-Riggs 184.206
For the best speeds, ave speeds, laps run and more, see the Texas Practice Speeds/News page.(4-3-2009)
- Where did the non top-35 drivers practice at Texas Motor Speedway:
if things stay the same, these eight drivers would make the race:
#13-Max Papis, 18th
#71-David Gilliland, 28th
#78-Regan Smith, 29th
#87-Joe Nemechek, 35th
#8-Aric Almirola, 37th
#21-Bill Elliott [PC], 40th
#09-Mike Bliss, 41st
#25-Brad Keselowski, 42nd
these drivers would miss the race if things stayed the same:
#82-Scott Speed, 43rd
#66-Dave Blaney, 44th
#41-Jeremy Mayfield, 45th
#36-Scott Riggs, 47th
#64-Todd Bodine, 48th
- NASCAR team owner to run Indy 500? UPDATE: According to a press release from TB Communications, a press conference has been scheduled for Monday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway for a “NASCAR team owner” to announce an entry into the 93rd running of the Indianapolis 500 on May 24. The release said the team owner will be making his debut as a car owner in the Indy 500. Two Sprint Cup Series team owners can be eliminated. Roger Penske and Chip Ganassi have both won the Indy 500 as car owners. The NASCAR team owner announcing the entry is also expected to announce a major sponsor for the deal and also who will drive his car. The release did not say if the NASCAR team owner involved is an owner in the Sprint Cup Series.(Hartford Courant)(4-3-2009)
UPDATE: Richard Petty Motorsports will field an Indy 500 entry for driver John Andretti, sources have confirmed to NASCAR.COM. The official announcement will be made Monday. Given that RPM currently does not have an IndyCar operation, it was unclear Friday how the program would take shape.(NASCAR.com)(4-3-2009)
- Las Vegas lands NASCAR’s Sprint Cup banquet: NASCAR and the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority have reached an agreement in principle to bring the Sprint Cup banquet, awards ceremony and postseason celebration to Las Vegas in the first week of December. LVCVA president Rossi Ralenkotter confirmed the tentative agreement to move the annual event from downtown New York, where it has been held for the past 27 years, and make it a citywide event centered on the Strip. Some deal points still need to be finalized,” Ralenkotter said Thursday. The sides have yet to settle the length of the contract; Ralenkotter wants a deal of three to five years. Also to be determined is the degree to which Las Vegas will be included in advertising and media references to the event. The LVCVA would pay NASCAR between $500,000 and $1 million for each year of the contract, Ralenkotter said. NASCAR has the option of selecting the venue for the banquet, likely to be Dec. 4. A spokesman for NASCAR, Ramsey Poston, said “nothing’s been finalized” about this year’s banquet plans. The event honors the top 10 drivers from the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship. Talks between NASCAR officials and Ralenkotter began two years ago, with Ralenkotter attending the 2007 banquet. Negotiations picked up in the past two months. NASCAR moved its banquet from Daytona Beach, Fla., to New York in 1981 in part to establish a Madison Avenue presence. The move was highly successful, helping to attract a number of Fortune 500 sponsors, including Home Depot, Dupont and Sprint Nextel, to the sport. But high-priced hotel rooms in Manhattan and often harsh winter weather created problems for racers, sponsors and media traveling to the five-day event. Last year the “Victory Lap” parade around midtown with the top-10 Cup cars and drivers was canceled because it caused traffic congestion. NASCAR would be the second major professional sport to shift its awards ceremony to Las Vegas this year. Ralenkotter negotiated a three-year deal to bring the NHL awards to the Palms on June 18.(Las Vegas Review-Journal)(4-3-2009)
- #64 Team gets sponsor for Texas: Gunselman Motorsports and the #64 Toyota driven by Todd Bodine have partnered with Mambo Restaurants to spice up the team’s sponsorship for this weekend’s Samsung 500 at Texas Motor Speedway. Headquartered in Houston, TX; the seven Mambo Restaurants include six Mambo Seafood and one Mambo Parilla restaurant. Featuring authentic Latin cuisine, the seafood restaurants started serving their signature dishes in the mid-1990s in the north and southwest Houston neighborhoods. After adding another five, the company opened Mambo Parilla in 2003 serving Mexican-inspired grilled items on Houston’s East end. Each restaurant features family style or individual platters and are complimented by their copyrighted Mambo Michelada to wash it all down. “We appreciate Mambo’s wanting to get involved with us for the Texas race weekend,” said Larry Gunselman, team owner. “Every little bit helps with a team like ours and we hope to make the folks at Mambo Restaurants proud. I just wish they had a place closer than Houston so we could enjoy some of their great food. We got hungry just looking at their menu online the other day.”(Gunselman Motorsports PR)(4-3-2009)
- Sadler To Promote Autism Awareness at Texas: This weekend at Texas Motor Speedway NASCAR driver Elliott Sadler is driving into the month of April with something important on his mind-raising awareness for Autism-by wearing a specially designed autism awareness helmet for Autism Awareness month. The helmet features the familiar multi-colored puzzle pieces that have become the symbol for autism awareness, along with the arrow pointing forward that is prominently placed on every Sadler helmet. Following the month of April the helmet will go up for online auction at www.SadlerFoundation.org to raise money that will directly benefit The Hermie and Elliott Sadler Foundation and autism related charities.(ElliottSadler.com)(4-3-2009)
- Keselowski back in the #25 at Texas: Brad Keselowski will attempt to qualify the #25 GoDaddy.com Chevy for Hendrick Motorsports on Friday at Texas Motor Speedway. This is Keselowski’s fifth attempt at making a Sprint Cup Series event and his fourth for Hendrick Motorsports. Keselowski has qualified three times driving the #25 Chevy for Hendrick Motorsports and most recently drove the #25 Chevy to a 38th-place finish at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on March 1. After this weekend at Texas, Keselowski will attempt to make the field in five more Sprint Cup races this season for Hendrick Motorsports. Keselowski will try to line up the #25 GoDaddy.com Chevrolet at Darlington on May 9, Dover on May 31, Chicago on July 11, Michigan on Aug. 16, and Kansas on Oct. 4. Crew chief Lance McGrew has chosen Hendrick Motorsports Chassis No. 25-537 for this weekend’s event at Texas Motor Speedway. The car, which will be pitted by Keselowski’s #88 Nationwide Series crew, has not been raced or tested, although McGrew and his team took it to the wind tunnel last month.(HMS PR)(4-3-2009)
- Gordon has good record at Texas, but no wins: #24-Jeff Gordon has more top-five and top-10 finishes than any other Sprint Cup driver at Texas Motor Speedway. He ranks sixth on the all-time Sprint Cup win list with 81 victories and out of the 22 tracks on the Cup circuit, Gordon is lacking wins on two – Homestead and Texas. In Gordon’s last appearance at TMS, the Dickies 500, he sat on the pole and finished runner-up to Carl Edwards. Gordon went winless last season for the first time since 1993, his first full Cup season, but the #24 team has started 2009 on a better note. Gordon is situated among the points leaders and has posted second-places finishes at Daytona and Atlanta.(TMS PR)(4-3-2009)
- Texas Rookie Notes: #20-Joey Logano was the Raybestos Rookie of the Race in the March 29 Goody’s Fast Pain Relief 500 at Martinsville Speedway. Logano scored a 32nd-place finish and took top rookie honors for the fourth time in six races this season. Logano leads #82-Scott Speed by two points (64-62) in the Raybestos Rookie standings entering the April 5 Samsung 500 at Texas Motor Speedway. Only once in 16 previous NASCAR Sprint Cup races at Texas has a Raybestos Rookie won the race. Dale Earnhardt Jr. scored his first career Sprint Cup Series win by 5.920 seconds over Jeff Burton in 2000. Earnhardt Jr. also led the most laps in the event (six times for 106 laps). Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kasey Kahne are the only Raybestos Rookies to lead the most laps in 16 previous Sprint Cup Series races at Texas. Kahne led six times for 148 laps in 2004 Samsung 500 (spring race). Ryan Newman holds the all-time Raybestos Rookie record for most poles (6), most top-fives (14) and most top-10s (22). Denny Hamlin is the only Raybestos Rookie to qualify for the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup since the program was created in 2004.(Camp & Assoc./Raybestos PR), see rookie history, past winners, stats, standings on my 2009 Rookies page.(4-3-2009)
- Texas Goodyear Tire Notes: Teams in both NASCAR series will run the same right-side tire code at Texas this week, but they will run different left-side codes . . . the left-side code for Sprint Cup teams (D-4220) is new to the Goodyear tire lineup and features a compound change over last year’s left-side to offer more grip . . . this is the same right-side code (D-4136) that was used by Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series teams at Texas, Chicagoland and Homestead in 2008 . . . . . . as on all NASCAR ovals greater than one mile in length, teams are required to run inner liners in all four tire positions at Texas . . . air pressure in those inner liners should be 12-25 psi greater than that of the outer tire. The estimated pit window is every 50-55 laps, based on fuel mileage.(Goodyear PR), see codes, pressures and more on the Texas Race Info page.(4-3-2009)
- Nationwide Series Live from Texas on ESPN2: The NASCAR Nationwide Series returns to superspeedway action this weekend at the 1.5-mile Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth. ESPN2 will have a live, high definition telecast of the 300-mile race on Saturday, April 4, beginning at 2:30 p.m. ET with NASCAR Countdown. ESPN2 is the home of the NASCAR Nationwide Series all season, with selected races on ESPN and ABC. The race re-airs Sunday, April 5, at 11 a.m. on ESPN Classic. Dr. Jerry Punch will be the lap-by-lap announcer, joined in the booth for analysis by Dale Jarrett and Andy Petree. Dave Burns, Jamie Little, Shannon Spake and Vince Welch will report from the pits, while Tim Brewer will be in the ESPN Craftsman Tech Garage. Allen Bestwick will host NASCAR Countdown with analysis by Jarrett and Brad Daugherty in the ESPN pit studio.(ESPN PR)(4-3-2009)
- Nationwide To Use Twitter, Twitpic for real-time race access: The Nationwide Media Team for the NASCAR Nationwide Series will be using Twitter (http://twitter.com/Nationwide) and Twitpic (http://www.twitpic.com/photos/nationwide) to provide real-time, behind-the-scenes access to the NASCAR Nationwide Series Pepsi 300 at Nashville Superspeedway April 10 and 11. They will post updates and capture photos from the pre-race press conference, at a driver Easter Egg Toss, in the garage area and pretty much anywhere else interesting stuff is taking place. Additionally, they are taking special requests you may have for pictures from pit row, the press conference, a particular driver, etc. They may not be able to fulfill all the requests, but they will certainly try. You can follow the Nationwide Media Team’s whereabouts on the track those two days on Twitter/Nationwide. The pictures will be posted at http://www.twitpic.com/photos/nationwide. Send your photo request to http://twitter.com/Nationwide or [email protected] by midnight April 9.(Nationwide PR)(4-3-2009)
- Hackett to make season debut at Nashville: Ryan Hackett and Ray Hackett Racing will be making their 2009 Nationwide Series debut at Nashville Superspeedway on April 11 as they attempt to qualify for the Pepsi 300. The team will be led by 1993 Busch Series Championship crew chief Bryant Frazier. Janitorial and cleaning supply company J&R Supply Corp. will serve as associate sponsor and primary sponsorship opportunities are still available. The team plans to race a limited schedule in both the Nationwide Series and Camping World Truck Series with more races to be announced as sponsorship is found.(Hackett Racing PR)(4-3-2009)
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