Kenseth wins pole at Bristol

Matt Kenseth and Jeff Gordon continued their frantic push to qualify for NASCAR’s Chase for the Championship, qualifying first and second Friday at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway.

Gordon was on the pole for just a few moments before Kenseth turned a lap of 127.300 mph in his Ford to snatch the top spot away. It’s just the second career pole for Kenseth, who last started from the top spot three years ago in Dover, Del.

“It’s been a while,” Kenseth said. “It was pretty fun to beat (Gordon) off the pole because he’s always known for being so good here.”

Gordon, a five-time Bristol winner, turned a lap at 127.199 mph in his Chevrolet to secure the second starting spot. He had started the past three years from the pole in the Sharpie 500.

“It was a great lap, I’m real happy with it. But I kind of felt like we left a little bit out there,” Gordon said. “All it took was somebody like Matt Kenseth to put a good lap together.”

Dave Blaney, who has a new crew chief this week, qualified third and was followed by Greg Biffle and Ricky Rudd.

Kenseth and Gordon are among a handful of drivers trying hard to qualify for NASCAR’s 10-race title hunt. There are just three events left to make it into the top 10 in the standings, and Gordon has pulled himself to 12th while Kenseth is 15th.

Series points leader Tony Stewart qualified 17th in his backup car after crashing his primary Chevrolet during a practice session. Jamie McMurray, clinging to the 10th and final spot for Chase qualification, was 18th but will have to drop to the back of the field because he changed the transmission in his Dodge before qualifying.

Rusty Wallace, who leads all active drivers with nine Bristol wins, qualified 20th.

Newman wins Busch race

Ryan Newman outlasted two long rain delays, 12 cautions and overtime to stretch his winning streak to three consecutive races in the NASCAR Busch series with a victory at Bristol Motor Speedway.

Newman inherited the lead in the Food City 250 under caution when the cars in front of him had to make scheduled pit stops on lap 139. He was still there when the second rain stoppage of the night was called, and resumed the race as the leader after delays totaling almost two hours.

He then had to hold off several charges from Kasey Kahne, especially on the numerous restarts in the waning laps. Kahne made several attempts to pass him, but spun himself out with 30 laps to go as he raced for the lead.

With Kahne out of the way, it left fellow Nextel Cup stars Greg Biffle and Kevin Harvick as the only two challengers to Newman. Biffle was attempting to pass Newman with 17 laps to go when Newman was saved by a spin by Carl Edwards that brought out the 11th caution.

Racing resumed with 11 laps to go, and Newman was again aided by another caution just when it looked as if Harvick and Biffle were making another run at him with five laps left. It set up a two-lap sprint to the finish under NASCAR’s green-white-checkered flag finish policy that Newman won by building a huge lead in his Dodge on the restart.

Biffle finished second, Harvick third and Clint Bowyer fourth – the best finish by a full-time Busch driver.

Sorenson’s crew caught ‘soaking’

Two members of Reed Sorenson’s crew were thrown out of Bristol Motor Speedway after NASCAR officials caught the Busch team rubbing an unapproved substance on its tires.

Brian Pattie, crew chief for the No. 41 Dodge, and team member Brian Stafford were removed from track property and not allowed to participate in the night’s Busch race.

Sorenson, who came into Bristol third in the Busch points standings, was not allowed to qualify for the race and ordered to start at the back of the field.

Using any sort of substance on a tire – a practice called “soaking tires” – is done to increase grip and speed.

Bourdais on Champ Car pole

Sebastien Bourdais strengthened his hold on the points lead in the Champ Car World Series by claiming the provisional pole for Sunday’s Montreal Molson Indy.

A fast lap of 1-minute, 21.924-seconds – a speed of 119.042 mph – was good enough to take the top spot in the session shortened by nine minutes when rookie Andrew Ranger crashed hard and had to be helped from his battered car.

The shaken-up Ranger, from nearby Roxton Pond, Quebec, was checked at the track medical facility and released.