Stewart Qualifies 5th While Newman Slips to 30th for Kansas Cup Race

KANSAS CITY, Kan. – After posting the fastest speed in practice, Ryan Newman slipped to a 30th-place qualifying effort due to a loose-handling race car during Friday’s time trials for Sunday’s Sprint Cup race.

Newman’s No. 39 U.S. Army/Haas Automation Chevrolet Impala SS covered the 1.5-mile oval at Kansas Speedway in 31.196 seconds at 173.099 miles per hour.

“The car was real loose, especially in turns one and two,” said Newman. “We had a strong practice but didn’t repeat during qualifying. It’s frustrating, but we’ll bounce back and work even harder to get this U.S. Army/Haas Automation Chevy to the front on Sunday.”

Newman’s teammate, Tony Stewart, went out first and held on to wind up qualifying fifth.

HOW DIFFERENT IS THE TRACK RIGHT NOW THAN IT WAS IN PRACTICE THIS MORNING?
“If all the other guys are watching, it’s terrible. I wouldn’t even try to go near as fast as what we practiced, no it’s pretty good. Everybody is gonna get a cloud here so. We’ve got one gigantic cloud that we normally all want so it’s going to be about the same for everybody. But its still pretty windy out.”

WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THAT TIME, DO YOU THINK IT WILL STICK?
“I don’t know. I’m proud of it no matter where we end up with it, I’m going to be really proud of it. I am proud of Darian(Grubb, crew chief) and these guys today. They’ve done an awesome job and we’re all smiling and having a good time with each other. So proud of everyone on this Office Depot Chevy.

“For drawing first in qualifying, I think these were the best track conditions we could have asked for at that time. The wind was obviously a variable during the session and when some guys went out it was a little calmer than it was when others were on the track. We had a solid day, we were fifth in practice and we’re going to be a top five car here. We backed that up and, in my opinion, we have a very good weekend started.”

“I think we’re going to be in good shape for the race. My car drove pretty decent in race practice first thing this morning and we’ve got two more days to work on it. I feel like we’ve got a good base and it was probably the earliest we’ve quit working on race set-up this year in order to get ready for qualifying. That paid off for us in qualifying and I felt like the car was really comfortable in race set-up too. I feel like we’ve really got something to work with.”

The pole winner was Mark Martin (175.758 mph). Rounding out the top-five in order were: Dale Earnhardt Jr., Brad Keselowski, Jamie McMurray and Stewart.

Newman enters the Kansas race with five straight top-10 finishes and is seventh in the Chase point standings.

Sunday’s Price Chopper 400 will be televised on ABC, beginning with a one-hour prerace show at noon CT (1 p.m. ET).