Stewart-Haas Racing Qualifying Report

Fort Worth – Tony Stewart, driver of the No. 14 Office Depot/Old Spice Chevrolet Impala SS, led the two-car Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) contingent in time trials at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth by qualifying fourth for Sunday’s Dickies 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race. Stewart turned a lap of 28.328 seconds at 190.624 mph on the 1.5-mile oval.

“I’m really happy with our lap. That was about two-tenths faster than I was even hoping for,” said Stewart, who won the fall Texas race in 2006. “I’m proud of Darian Grubb (crew chief) and these guys. We started off pretty slow in this morning’s practice and gained speed all through the session. It’s a good starting spot, and now we’ve got to go to work tomorrow and try to get the race setup as nice as the qualifying setup was.”

Ryan Newman, driver of the No. 39 Haas Automation/U.S. Army Chevrolet Impala SS for SHR, qualified 26th with a time of 28.625 seconds at 188.646 mph.

“I really thought we were going to have a better lap than that,” said Newman, who won at Texas in March 2003. “I felt like we were going to be fine. I got a tick free, but I really can’t complain about the car. It’s not the qualifying lap we had hoped for, but I think we’ll be fine in the race.”

Jeff Gordon captured his 68th career Sprint Cup pole, his first of the season and his second at Texas by posting a lap of 28.255 seconds at 191.117 mph. The four-time Sprint Cup champion remained fourth on NASCAR’s all-time pole position list, but needs just one more pole to tie Cale Yarborough for third.

Kasey Kahne will start alongside Gordon on the outside of row one (28.276 seconds at 190.975 mph), while Kurt Busch (28.281 seconds at 190.941 mph), Stewart and Kyle Busch (28.343 seconds at 190.523 mph) rounded out the top-five.

Forty-seven drivers attempted to qualify for the Dickies 500. Those not making the cut in the 43-car field were Mike Bliss, Dave Blaney, Max Papis and Tony Raines.

As far as manufacturers went, Chevrolet took the top spot thanks to Gordon’s pole. Dodge was next best at the hands of Kahne, while the top Toyota came courtesy of Kyle Busch. Ford rounded out the manufacturers with sixth-quick Carl Edwards (28.399 seconds at 190.148 mph).

The Dickies 500 gets underway at 3:15 p.m. EST on Sunday, Nov. 8, with live coverage provided by ABC beginning with its pre-race show at 2:30 p.m.