Newman knocks out hot lap for NHIS pole

Ryan Newman is back where he belongs. Just when his pole earning mojo appeared to have disappeared, Newman knocked out the hottest lap at New Hampshire International Raceway grabbing the pole.

After scoring the most poles for the last several seasons in NASCAR Cup racing, Newman earned just his second top starting spot with a lap of 129.683 mph. It is Newman's 37th career pole.

"We've been working on making things better," Newman commented. "Last week was absolutely miserable and today was the opposite of that. We had to make it better than a sixth place car after practice and we managed to do that."

Jeff Burton was second quickest with a lap of 129.652 mph, "We worked on race set up and made two qualifying runs in practice. We too found that one and two were quite a bit different than three and four.I am pretty impressed with my lap, too go out that early and be that fast, I am just real proud we were able to lay that lap down that early."

Brian Vickers, Kyle Busch and Tony Stewart complete the top five fastest times.

"It was a pretty good lap," said Vickers. "I felt like we were real good in three and four, I never felt like at this track that turns one and two were real different than three and four, but this time they did.I felt like we were better in three and four than we were in one and two.I think our test at Milwaukee paid off because all of the Hendrick cars were good."

Notably, point leader Jimmie Johnson will start sixth.

"I feel good about it," said Johnson of NHIS. "I like the heat and I think the slicker the track is, the better I do. I think it suits my driving a little bit, so I'm excited for that."

Forty-seven cars attempted to qualify for the forty-three car field; failing to make the show were Ted Christopher, Derrike Cope, Morgan Shepard and Joey McCarthy.