“We didn’t know what to expect since we didn’t make any qualifying laps yesterday in practice. We concentrated on race trim,” said Newman, who has a best Talladega finish of third, earned in April 2009. “It was a pretty good lap considering when we went out (22nd). It’s all about how the guys prepare this U.S. Army Chevrolet to make it fast. It’s up to me to keep the fenders on it and stay out of crashes.”

Tony Stewart, driver of the No. 14 El Monterey/Office Depot Chevrolet Impala for SHR, will start 12th after turning a lap of 53.168 seconds at 180.108 mph.

“I held it wide-open all the way around and will do it all over again tomorrow,” said Stewart, who has one Sprint Cup victory at Talladega, earned in October 2008. “We’re going to drop to the back anyhow, so the starting spot isn’t that important. The pit selections is, and 12th gets us a good spot for the El Monterey/Office Depot Chevy.”

Mark Martin captured his 51st career Sprint Cup pole, his second of the season and his third at Talladega by posting a lap of 52.799 seconds at 181.367 mph.

Martin’s Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jimmie Johnson will start on the outside of row one as he timed in at 52.801 seconds at 181.360 mph. Clint Bowyer was third (52.835 seconds at 181.243 mph), while Daytona 500 winner Trevor Bayne (52.903 seconds at 181.011 mph) and Jeff Gordon (52.930 seconds at 180.918 mph) rounded out the top-five.

Forty-seven drivers attempted to qualify for the Good Sam Club 500. Those not making the cut in the 43-car field were Geoffrey Bodine, Scott Speed, T.J. Bell and Josh Wise.

As far as manufacturers went, Chevrolet took five of the top-six spots. Ford was the lone make to crack the top-five via Bayne, while Dodge was next best at the hands of 14th-quick Kurt Busch (53.209 seconds at 179.970 mph). Carrying the flag for Toyota was 20th-quick Kevin Conway (53.291 seconds at 179.693 mph), the 2010 Sprint Cup Rookie of the Year.

The Good Sam Club 500 gets underway at 2 p.m. EDT on Sunday, Oct. 23 with live coverage provided by ESPN beginning with a pre-race show at 1 p.m.

The NASCAR HOTPASS lineup for the Checker O’Reilly Auto Parts 500k at Phoenix International Raceway on Sunday, Nov. 15 is as follows:

Channel 795 – Mark Martin
Channel 796 – Tony Stewart
Channel 797 – Jeff Gordon
Channel 798 – Jimmie Johnson

WHAT KIND OF RACE DO YOU THINK WE’LL SEE SUNDAY?

NEWMAN: “A dry one. I don’t know. I look forward to it. It’s one of my favorite race tracks. I just like it because it’s different. The front straightaway can be boring when you’re out front but that’s a good problem to have. As a driver it’s challenging because all three corners are different. Because it’s challenging that way the crew chief has to compensate and the driver has to compensate. Dover is pretty symmetric and once you get one end right you’ve got the other end pretty close and here it’s a challenge. I look forward to it.”

MARTIN: “I’ve always thought this is one of the best places to race that we go to on the schedule. I’ve had a number of people disagree with that. I love it and always have loved it. This is one of my better places. I look forward to going to work every day now that I get to strap in that No. 5 car. I can’t wait to get on the race track.”

IF EVERYBODY SAYS THE RACING IS COMPETITIVE AND GOOD, THEN WHY THE NEED TO TRICK IT UP WITH THE DOUBLE-FILE RESTART?

NEWMAN: “We’ve tricked it up for the last 50 years. It’s just another step to keep delivering to the fans what they want. It’s something that I think will make the racing better from an excitement standpoint and that’s what we’re here for. We’re delivering entertainment to the fans. If the fans say they want us to start the third restart in reverse and switch around two laps later and run forward we’re probably going to do it. Racing is exciting. Mark (Martin) said it, I’ve said it. It’s exciting. We’re putting on pretty fun races that I’ve seen and I’m not just talking about for the lead. I’m talking about cars running side-by-side in the racing that we’ve had. You’re seeing a good average number of cars on the lead lap. I think it’s somewhere around 20 or something like that each race and that’s competitive racing. Just delivering the fans what they want is what our job is as a series, as drivers and as sponsors.”

MARTIN: “We’re in competition with every other form of entertainment and that’s more important and been brought to the forefront based on what has happened with the economy and everything. So that’s what’s it about. It’s about trying to step up your game. Everybody has their game. We’re competitors. From a competitor’s standpoint there’s winners and loser in a double-file restart. You just have to hope that balances out equally. What that means is that sometimes a double-file restart will put you in a less desirable lane that you wouldn’t have had to maybe deal with. Hopefully it balances out to 50/50 over the long haul and you gain some and you lose some and the fans gain every time.”

NEWMAN: “Five years ago we were talking about lucky dogs and a big change in the sport was a guy getting a free pass and now we are talking about just different restarts. It’s just progression and evolution on NASCAR.”

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YOU BOTH WENT INTO THIS SEASON WITH NEW DEALS THAT WERE A LITTLE RISKY, WE’RE HALFWAY THROUGH THE REGULAR SEASON HOW HAVE YOUR NEW JOBS MET WITH YOUR EXPECTATIONS GOING INTO THIS SEASON AND WHAT CAN WE EXPECT FOR THE REST OF THE YEAR?

NEWMAN: “Mark’s (Martin) high risk was retiring. What kind of risk is that? (laughter)”

MARTIN: “The high risk was watching it from the couch instead of getting to stand in victory lane a couple of times.”

NEWMAN: “Obviously we’re sitting here saying we’re happy in our position but I’ve said several times now for me there was as much risk in staying as there was in moving and it’s just a matter of the making the best of your options and your opportunities. I’ve been very fortunate to work with Tony Stewart and the people at Stewart-Haas Racing. We’ve been running well. Trying to get to victory lane but running well. We’ve moved up in the points and at this point we’re fifth. That’s gratifying to know that you put a lot of things on the line to do that but you do that regardless. I would have done the same thing if I would have stayed at Penske racing. Still putting a lot on the line. You’re on the line every week and you’re on that edge. I’m happy where I’m at.”

MARTIN: “Same here. I do get more comfortable every week. There was a lot of different emotions coming into the thing. I hoped that we might get a chance to win a race but I didn’t expect to I just hoped. You’ve heard that. You’ve heard about all the stuff. Really the only thing that’s really new that I could add to that is that I get more comfortable every weekend. We had our worst day at the race track last Friday where we were not fast and qualified 28th. I know those days are coming and sooner or later those days are going to come on a Sunday but certainly didn’t have it last Sunday. I get more and more comfortable with my team and laughing more and having fun and feeling a little bit less pressure. I really feel like that they have my back and I’ve got their back. We’ve proved to each other that we can do this stuff. The day that we have a bad day we’re all going to hold hands and say we’re going to do better tomorrow. So that feels good. You know it could carry a lot of pressure to try to step in there and do the job. Everyone’s expectations of Hendrick Motorsports are very, very high. I’m really happy so far that I’ve been able to do the job.”

WITH THE RAIN IT LOOKS LIKE IT WILL PROBABLY WASH THINGS OUT TODAY, HOW DOES THAT EFFECT YOUR PREPARATION WITH THIS UNIQUE CONFIGURATION? IS IT AN ADVANTAGE, DISADVANTAGE OR ARE ALL OF YOU IN THE SAME BOAT?

NEWMAN: “I think we just lose practice time. It’s just like testing. The more testing you get the strong get stronger and the guys that aren’t as strong they get stronger too. It’s just a sliding scale so the more time we have on the track the more time we have to work with the race cars to idealize all three corners. Losing a day is just that. We’ll still have a competitive race. Maybe all 43 cars won’t be quite as fast and that doesn’t change the racing.”

MARTIN: “I view it as the less time on the track the better. I feel like for our team, for us we usually hit the track running and the longer we run the more the competition has a chance to catch up. I’m really comfortable if we get rained out completely today then that means we’ll start 12th. I feel certain we would have qualified better than that but there’s nothing wrong with that starting position. We’ll have practice tomorrow. Like Ryan (Newman) said it doesn’t really impact the race or the competition because everyone is on the same footing. I think both of us would enjoy the opportunity to qualify. Ryan is really good at it and my car has been really fast. We’ll take it. You’ve got to work with the weather.”

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THE NEXT TIME WE COME BACK TO THE NORTHEAST IS OBVIUOUSLY NEW HAMPSHIRE, FOR BOTH OF YOU HOW MUCH IS YOUR PERCEPTION OF LOUDON CHANGED OVER THE YEARS?

NEWMAN: “My perception hasn’t changed. I think they’ve done a really good job with the race track and the facility. They made it more fan-friendly and raised the bar like any other place like Darlington has. I enjoy the race track. I enjoy the area. Obviously there’s some good fishing up there just like there is here. If qualifying got rained out there too it wouldn’t be that big of a deal.”

MARTIN: “This is one of those tracks that I haven’t been to in three years. No worries. Martinsville and Bristol were a couple of those as well. It’s like going anywhere else, it’s all about going through the corners. So we’ll go up there and do there what we’ve done everywhere else. For me I feel no anxiety going anywhere, even to my least favorite race track. I actually looked forward to going to Martinsville even though it’s my least favorite race track because the Hendrick cars run so well there and we did. My team is learning and I’m learning about the tuning tools, the Hendrick tuning tools. I feel like our cars are getting better with every race. We’re learning how to make them better for me and more comfortable. We’re learning how to get the car to do what I want them to do more and more all the time. With each and every week I feel that we make a little progress as far as communication and them knowing the things that I like to feel in the car and how to get to that.”

A LOT OF DRIVERS DON’T LIKE COMING HERE FOR WHATEVER REASON, TO YOU WHAT MAKES THIS ONE OF THE BEST PLACES ON THE SCHEDULE?

MARTIN: “You’re just talking to old stupid racer. I don’t know. I love racing here. I’ve always run good here. This thing has huge, long corners but it’s still about getting through the turns. It has huge, long corners and they’re a challenge. Like Ryan (Newman) said they’re three completely different deals and it requires a different mind-set and different skill-set than some other race tracks from a team standpoint and tuning tools and everything. I don’t know. I mean you ask a guy that runs good every time he goes to a certain race track what his favorite raced track is and he’ll say that one. This is one of the ones even though we haven’t piled up a lot of wins. If you look at my average finish its probably better here than almost anywhere so we’ve always run good here. I like it. It’s not any fun though if your car doesn’t work well. I have had some poor working cars on very few occasions and gosh it’s as miserable here as it is anywhere when they’re like that.”

JEFF BURTON CAME IN AND SAID HE WAS SHOCKED TO SEE NASCAR MADE THE DECISION ON THE DOUBLE-FILE RESTARTS SO FAST, DO YOU GUYS SHARE THAT OPINION THERE AND DO YOU FEEL LIKE IF THE DRIVERS HAD A VOTE WE WOULD HAVE DOUBLE-FILE RESTARTS NOW?

NEWMAN: “As I stated before I think it’s all for the fans. I think the drivers have an input and I think we as drivers have had the opportunity to give input based on the time we spent together at our town hall meeting and in between from then until now. Timing wise to me it doesn’t matter whether they do it now which they have or if they waited until the beginning of next season. That doesn’t matter. It’s about what we do for the fans and if the fans want to see it. You’re not going to make everybody happy, we’ve already seen that in several things. But if you can make at least the majority happy then those people might have an influence on the other ones that don’t understand it or like it.”

MARTIN: “From a fans standpoint I think it’s timely because we’re competing and that’s an entertainment factor. From a competitors standpoint I would have rather mulled it over for a while. From a competitors standpoint purely I wasn’t sure about it. I wasn’t sure we had thought about it from that standpoint. How it impacts a restart at Indy for example. From a fans standpoint I think it’s kind of good sometimes when you put somebody that’s in an advantageous position and you put them in a disadvantaged position, that’s what the All-Star race is all about. It’s about a million bucks. I get a chance to race for a million dollars to win. I’ll restart any way they want me to. You know the Cup thing with the points thing and all that stuff you tend to be a little bit more conservative.”

NEWMAN: “What’s it pay, five million now? Six million?”

MARTIN: “Yeah but it takes a year to get there. It’s pretty serious. From my standpoint I was little bit on the conservative side of that because I personally don’t want to have the day where I was running third or fourth at Indy with a great car for example and have to restart on the outside and wind up getting in line in 10th on a green-white-checker. It’s going to be disappointing. So that’s what I meant by hopefully it balances itself out from a competitor side. From a fans standpoint it’s a win-win. It’s what the All-Star race is about. It just makes it more like that. It’s going to be better for the fans. It’s what it’s about. A lot of the rules that are made are not about the competitors you know. So from my standpoint I look at it from both sides and I understand why they brought it this weekend. It’s time to go. Let’s go get them. Let’s go put on a show. Let’s make sure that our race fans are getting, that’s what we’re all doing. We’re trying to make sure that our fans and our sponsors get more value right now in a tough time. We’re trying to give them more.”

NEWMAN: “One of the things we have to keep in mind with the double-file restart is just as in the initial start the No. 2 starter must not beat the No. 1 starter to the line so you get down to a green-white-checker like Mark (Martin) says and I’m going for it. What if the No. 2 starter beats the No. 1 starter by three inches to the line, there’s a judgment call that has to be made there. We just have to be careful and consider all things. That’s why from a competitor standpoint we haven’t talked through these things. We’re potentially talking about going from running first or second to 40th all because of three inches so we have to make sure we have that communication with NASCAR. It’s our responsibility as competitors as well.”

HOW BIG OF A DEAL IS IT GOING TO BE WHEN HISTORICALLY AT POCONO YOU USUALLY HAVE A YELLOW IN THE LAST 25 LAPS?

NEWMAN: “That’s almost a quarter of the race here.”

I UNDERSTAND THAT BUT IN THE LAST 25 LAPS THERE’S USUALLY A YELLOW, WHAT TURN ARE YOU GOING TO SET UP FOR THE THIRD OR THE SECOND COMING DOWN THAT LONG STRAIGHTAWAY?

NEWMAN: “All of them.”

MARTIN: “I set up for all of them myself.”

NEWMAN: “People ask me if I like a loose or tight race car and I say just make it perfect.”

MARTIN: “I don’t set up for one corner. I set up for all them. I work hard on all of them. I take what I can get but I work on all of them.”

NEWMAN: “You make the car as good as you can and then as a driver you manipulate it the way you need to so if you’ve got to run the bottom of three or the top of one or the way you enter turn two that’s what you do as a driver. That’s why they put the steering wheel in there.”

YOU TALKED ABOUT IT BEING BORING SOMETIMES OUT FRONT .

NEWMAN: “No just the front straightaway.”

DO YOU PREPARE MENTALLY DIFFERENT BECAUSE IT’S A LONG DAY OUT ON THE RACE TRACK?

NEWMAN: “No, not at all. You’re still as a driver doing the same thing. You have to have your strategy. In your team meeting you talk about the things you need to do that day. Where you’re starting and obviously where you want to finish goes without saying. Pocono is no different than Indy. It’s no different from Bristol. It’s no different than Infineon. You still have your challenges. Save your brakes, save your tires, two tires or four tires, all those types of things. From a driver’s standpoint it’s just beat the competition. It’s the same as every other weekend.”
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THE MODERATOR: We are now joined by second place finisher of the race, driver of the No. 14 Old Spice Office Depot Chevrolet. Tell us about your run.

TONY STEWART: Happy with it. Only way you could be happier is if you beat Mark Martin. Really proud of our organization, really proud of Darius Grubb and Jeff and all of our guys on our Old Spice Office Depot team.

I’m telling you, the last three weeks have just been amazing. I mean, it’s been so much fun: We’ve been in contention; we have led laps; we are doing everything right. It’s just a matter of time. We are consistent now and that’s what you’ve got to be. We are just clicking them off one at a time here. We are just a tick off but there’s no shame in losing to a guy like Mark Martin tonight.

I don’t think there’s anybody that’s not a Mark Martin fan. It was an awesome night for our organization and awesome night for Mark. Nobody, just like Kurt said, nobody works harder to stay in shape to be good and be fit and to be ready to go than Mark does. And when you see somebody that works that hard at it, you like to see the results come for him, too.

Q: How did the track change from day tonight and how did you adjust with your car on that?

TONY STEWART: Didn’t seem like it changed a lot to us. We kept fighting for it all night and just were really loose back to the gas up off to the corner. That’s where Mark was just a little better than us that second to last run when he ran us down at the end. He could get in the gas and stay in it and get a big drive off the corner.

Just seemed like what we fought, we fought all night and it didn’t really change for us. As it got a little bit cooler it got more grip but that’s Phoenix. That’s what it always does and that’s what makes this place so fun. It’s not freshly paved. It’s not locked down. You’ve got to drive the cars here. Nobody’s cars drive perfect here, you get one end of the track right and the other end suffers, whether it’s tight or loose, and so you have to constantly adjust as a driver and that’s what makes this place so much fun for us.

Q: You have the weight on your shoulders now; how satisfying is it to have such a nice year so far?

TONY STEWART: I mean, the guys that do this every week can probably tell you better than me. This is the best spring or the first ten races that I’ve ever had in my career so far I think.

It’s made it a lot easier. Doesn’t feel like such a heavy weight when it’s going well like this. I don’t think any of us would have predicted we would be in the Top 5 in points. To have the runs like we have had the last three weeks, it definitely makes that a lot smaller and lighter weight on your shoulder than it would be if you were struggling.

I think for us, it’s been refreshing just when you’ve never had a start like this to the season, it’s nice to finally have one; after ten years of this, it’s amazing to think that with a new team we can go out and have this kind of a start to the year.

Q: I saw you, Jimmie Johnson, Matt Kenseth, Jeff Burton, all in victory lane congratulating Mark. What does that say about Mark and how the drivers feel about him?

TONY STEWART: Tells you how much respect we all have for him. There’s nobody that dislikes Mark, and Mark was responsible for so many of us learning what it took to be a Sprint Cup driver and to be that caliber of a driver.

When you came up in the Nationwide Series and ran with him when he just dominated, he taught you a lot while you were running those races. And when you had a good day against Mark and when you did things right and you watched him and learned from him, that just accelerated the learning curve to get you ready for the Sprint Cup Series.

Mark has taught us all a lot about what it takes to be not only a good driver in this series but a good competitor and somebody that everybody respects.

THE MODERATOR: Tony, congratulations.

Wimmer will compete in six events in the No. 5 Chevrolet and Newman in four, with America’s largest fastener distributor, Fastenal, as the primary sponsor. Stewart’s one race for JR Motorsports will be in a Delphi-sponsored Chevrolet at Lowe’s Motor Speedway on Oct. 16. He is already a race-winner in 2009, driving a Hendrick Motorsports entry to victory in the season-opening Camping World 300 at Daytona International Speedway. He has eight overall victories in 87 starts.

“This No. 5 team carries a strong tradition and a lot of expectations, and we are fortunate to attract such quality talent to help carry on that tradition,” Earnhardt Jr. said. “We had a similar set-up with this team last year, and we were able to go to Victory Lane twice. Obviously with this driver line-up, there’s no reason we can’t exceed last year’s win total.”

The driver additions leave only two races on the No. 5 team’s 21-race schedule unfulfilled – the road-course events at Watkins Glen on Aug. 8 and Circuit Gilles Villeneuve on Aug. 30. Driver plans for those races will be announced at a later date.

Newman is a seven-time winner in the Nationwide Series. Six of his victories came during a stellar 2005 season, in which he scored eight top-fives in nine starts and led nearly half of his completed laps (800 of 1,658 laps). He will join the JR Motorsports campaign for the following races in the No. 5 Fastenal Chevrolet: Dover International Speedway on May 30, Chicagoland Speedway on July 10, Michigan International Speedway on Aug. 15, and Kansas Speedway on Oct. 3.

Wimmer is slated for six races in the Fastenal Chevy: Darlington Raceway on May 8, The Milwaukee Mile on June 20, O’Reilly Raceway Park on July 25, Iowa Speedway on Aug. 1, Bristol Motor Speedway on Aug. 21, and Richmond International Raceway on Sept. 11. He is a six-time winner with 29 top-fives and 68 top-10s in 171 starts. He captured four wins in 2002 en route to a career-best third-place finish in the championship point standings. His most recent victory came last season at Nashville Superspeedway for Richard Childress Racing.

“I am really excited to be associated with JR Motorsports and a great sponsor like Fastenal,” Wimmer said. “I will be running at tracks that have been good for me in the past and look forward to my first event with JR Motorsports at Darlington in May. Hopefully, we can get the Fastenal car in the Winners Circle.”

Earnhardt Jr., has already driven the No. 5 Chevy in two events this year, finishing seventh at Daytona and fifth at Las Vegas. He is scheduled for five more, starting with the April 4 race at Texas Motor Speedway. His is a 22-time race winner and a two-time series champion.

Martin, whose 48 victories make up the all-time career benchmark in the Nationwide Series, will drive the No. 5 Lipton Chevy on May 1 at Richmond International Raceway. He earned JR Motorsports its first-ever Nationwide Series victory at Las Vegas last March.

Fastenal is the latest of new sponsorship partners to join the JR Motorsports fold in 2009. Its 14-race deal with the No. 5 team was announced in January. Earlier in the year GoDaddy.com extended its partnership with Hendrick Motorsports and JR Motorsports and included a 20-race sponsorship package with JRM’s Nationwide Series teams. Unilever was introduced as a new partner last October, with its brands Hellmann’s, Lipton, Klondike, and Degree splitting races throughout the 2009 season. Delphi returns for seven races, six of which will be for the No. 88 Chevrolet driven by Brad Keselowski.