Teammates Reed Sorenson and Juan Pablo Montoya swept the front row for today’s Allstate 400 at the Brickyard, giving team owner Chip Ganassi another big day at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
The 21-year-old Sorenson was fastest in practice Saturday and returned to the track hours later and backed it up with a lap of 184.207 mph that gave the budding NASCAR star his first Nextel Cup pole in his 58th try.
Cup rookie Montoya, who gave Ganassi a win in the 2000 Indianapolis 500 and also ran six Formula One races at the speedway, came the closest to knocking his teammate off the top spot at 183.494. It was also his best qualifying effort in 21 Cup events.
Rain washed out both scheduled practices Friday and delayed the three-hour practice session Saturday by several hours, also pushing qualifying from mid-morning to late afternoon.
“The cars, just all three Ganassi cars, were just fast here all day,” said Sorenson, who added he was surprised to stay on top after drawing the second spot in the 49-car qualifying line. “After I ran, I thought there would be a lot of cars faster than us when it got cooler later in the day. But this is better car than we had last year.
“It’s an awesome place to get our first pole. I know it means a lot to Chip and everybody else involved.”
Ryan Newman, who drives for 15-time Indy 500-winning owner Roger Penske, gave Dodge a sweep of the top three spots, followed by the Chevrolet of fan favorite Dale Earnhardt Jr. and the Dodges of Kasey Kahne and Newman’s teammate Kurt Busch.
Champ Car: Justin Wilson took the pole position with a 49.039-second lap with just a minute and half left in qualifying at the San Jose (Calif.) Grand Prix.
Sebastien Bourdais, the overall Champ Car points leader who won the previous two San Jose Grand Prix races, will start second thanks to his qualifying victory Friday, though his Saturday time was just the sixth-best of the session.
“It was a very difficult session,” said Wilson, fourth in the overall points standings. Wilson and several others were backed up behind a slower car on the track.
“Luckily I had saved enough fuel to get one clear lap,” he said, and that was the lap that earned him the pole position.
Things did not go as well for Bourdais.
“We were completely lost this morning,” said Bourdais of the practice session. “We struggled all day with one bad rear tire.”
Dan Clarke and Oriol Servia are in the second row, with rookies Neel Jani and Graham Rahal lining up in row three.
Will Power, who had the second-fastest time Friday, dropped to 12th after Saturday’s racing.
Pole position is especially important on the San Jose stop because of the difficulty of passing on the tight road course.
NHRA: Mike Ashley took a big step toward securing one of the seven remaining spots in the Countdown to the Championship field with a top qualifying effort in funny car at the 20th annual Fram-Autolite NHRA Nationals in Sonoma, Calif.
Ashley (4.743 seconds) and top-fuel leader Doug Herbert (4.556) used their Friday night passes to wrap up their No. 1 spots while pro stock leader Greg Anderson needed to improve to 6.605 seconds Saturday to stay on top.
Angelle Sampey led pro stock motorcycle with her final-round run of 6.924.
Busch: Jason Leffler took the lead with two laps to go in the Kroger 200 in Clermont, Ind., and raced to his second series victory.
Greg Biffle led lap 191 before a caution brought the field together. Leffler took the lead in lap 197, then jockeyed with Biffle before finishing strong.
Today’s races
NASCAR NEXTEL CUP
Allstate 400 at the Brickyard
Site: Indianapolis
TV: ESPN, 11 a.m.
Track: Indianapolis Motor Speedway (rectangular oval, 2.5 miles, 9 degrees banking in turns)
Race distance: 400 miles, 160 laps
Last race: Tony Stewart won at Chicagoland Speedway on July 15, breaking a 20-race winless streak that dated to last season and turned around what had otherwise been a tumultuous week for the two-time series champion. The win came a day after a brief but intense lecture from team owner Joe Gibbs about his rift with teammate Denny Hamlin.
Fast facts: After 19 of 36 races this season, Jeff Gordon has four wins – tied with teammate Jimmie Johnson for the most in the series – 12 top fives, 17 top 10s and has been leading the points race since Bristol, the fifth race of the season. … Hendrick cars have been shut out of Victory Lane for the past five races after taking 10 of the first 14.
On the Net:
CHAMP CAR WORLD SERIES
San Jose Grand Prix
Site: San Jose, Calif.
TV: ESPN2, 4 p.m.
Track: Streets of San Jose (temporary road course, 1.448 miles, 11 turns)
Race distance: 1 hour, 45 minutes
Last race: Sebastien Bourdais won for the first time in four races and regained control of the title chase, driving away with the Rexall Grand Prix of Edmonton. He won on Edmonton’s City Centre Airport circuit for the second time in three tries.
Fast facts: Former points leader Robert Doornbos has failed to place among the top five in each of the past two races after recording podium finishes in five of the previous seven events. He enters San Jose trailing Bourdais by 20 points and five in front of Will Power. … Graham Rahal, the son of longtime racing star Bobby Rahal, recorded his second top-three podium finish of the season last weekend.
On the Net:
NHRA
Fram Autolite Nationals
Site: Sonoma, Calif.
TV: ESPN2, 6 p.m. tape.
Track: Infineon Raceway
Last event: Four-time champion Tony Schumacher beat Brandon Bernstein by 0.004 seconds to win the top-fuel event at the rain-delayed Schuck’s Auto Supply Nationals at Pacific Raceways. Jack Beckman won funny car and Dave Connolly won pro stock.
Fast facts: Five drivers became the first to clinch berths in the Countdown to the Championship, which begins Labor Day weekend: Rod Fuller (top fuel) and Ron Capps (funny car) along with pro stock’s Greg Anderson, Jeg Coughlin and Connolly. … John Force’s car went up in flames during his final-round loss to Jack Beckman, but he escaped uninjured. Ashley Force crashed into a retaining wall during her second-round clash with Kenny Bernstein. She was checked and released by track doctors.
On the Net:
