Auto Racing | Biffle captures first Cup pole of season
HAMPTON, Ga. - Greg Biffle won his first pole in more than a year, nipping Kurt Busch for the top spot in NASCAR Nextel Cup qualifying Friday night at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
The Vancouver, Wash., native turned a fast lap of 192.453 mph, while Busch had a 192.427 on the 1.5-mile oval. The time difference between the top two laps was 0.004 seconds.
Biffle, who earned his fourth career pole and first since May 2006 at Richmond, is on a bit of a late-season roll after failing to make it into the 12-man Chase for the Championship. The Roush Fenway Racing driver has three top-10 finishes in his last five starts, including his first win of the season last month at Kansas.
“They’re just giving me good cars to drive, and that’s all a guy can ask for,” he said. “I normally don’t ask for them this good; I just want a good race car. But this thing is excellent.”
Enumclaw’s Kasey Kahne qualified fourth.
Series leader Jeff Gordon was eighth, while runner-up Jimmie Johnson, 53 points behind his Hendrick Motorsports teammate heading into Sunday’s Pep Boys Auto 500, will start just ahead of the four-time Cup champion in sixth.
Notes
• With the recuperating John Force watching from the starting line, Robert Hight topped Funny Car qualifying with a second-round blast of 4.763 seconds at 322.58 mph in the ACDelco Las Vegas NHRA Nationals.
Tony Schumacher (Top Fuel), Justin Humphreys (Pro Stock) and Chip Ellis (Pro Stock Motorcycle) joined Hight at the top of the charts after the first day of professional qualifying at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
It was an emotional day for Hight and the rest of John Force Racing as their boss returned to the track for the first time since his accident in Dallas.
• Longtime open-wheel star Patrick Carpentier will attempt to qualify for the Nextel Cup races at Phoenix and Homestead, replacing Scott Riggs in the No. 10 Gillette-Evernham Motorsports Dodge.
Carpentier was already set to replace Riggs in the GEM entry in 2008. But the team decided to get a head start. He will also drive a second GEM Busch Series car at Homestead.
• Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates has hired former Dale Earnhardt Inc. director of technical operations Steve Hmiel as manager of competition.