No. 83 Fails Post-Qualifying Tech,  Vickers Goes Home

LOUDON, N.H. — Dave Blaney scored Toyota’s first Nextel Cup Series Bud Pole Award at NHIS on Friday when he navigated the Bill Davis Racing Caterpillar Toyota around the low-banked mile track at 129.335 miles per hour to edge Kurt Busch’s Penske Racing Miller Lite Dodge by four-tenths of a second.
Blaney was the first pole winner to come from outside the top-35 teams since Boris Said at Daytona almost one year ago.
It was the first pole in Nextel Cup competition for Toyota.
Other drivers to earn their way into the field were David Reutimann, Ward Burton, Jeremy Mayfield, Paul Menard, Bill Elliott, Kevin Lepage and Chad Chaffin.
Originally, Brian Vickers was among the qualifiers, but his time was disallowed when his car was found too low at post-qualifying inspection, opening the door for Chaffin.
Others missing the show were Michael Waltrip, Kenny Wallace, Dale Jarrett, Scott Riggs and A.J. Allmendinger.     
 
— NASCAR leveled harsh, but consistent penalties to the Hendrick Motorsports team as a result of the Car of Tomorrow violations by the No. 24 and No. 48 teams for drivers Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson at Infineon Raceway June 22-24.
Both teams were fined $100,000 and docked 100 owner and driver points, with crew chiefs Chad Knaus (48) and Steve Letarte (24) each suspended for six races.
“The penalties are excessive,” Rick Hendrick reiterated. “But we’re not going to put time and resources into issuing an appeal. Instead, we will direct that energy into our internal processes to make sure we have full confidence that our cars will meet standards when presented for inspection each week.
“We’ve said from the beginning that this would be a learning process (with the Car of Tomorrow) and there would be a lot of give and take between NASCAR and the teams to figure it out. That doesn’t seem to be the case now, and I don’t think it’s the right direction to go.”
No. 24 car chief Jeff Meendering and No. 48 car chief Ron Malec were named interim crew chiefs.
Letarte and Knaus will resume at-track duties for their respective teams at the Aug. 19 event at Michigan Int’l Speedway.

— Super Bowls have been won with second-string quarterbacks, so maybe it’s not surprising that three of the top-five finishers in the Lenox Industrial Tools 300 were operating with substitute crew chiefs.
With regular signal-callers Letarte and Knaus serving the first of their six-race suspensions for the “Fendergate” affair at Infineon Raceway last week, Jeff Meendering took the reins for Gordon and Ron Malec for Johnson.
Tony Eury, Jr. was on the final week of his sabbatical from the wing-bracket affair a Richmond, so Tony Gibson again called the shots for Dale Earnhardt, Jr.     

— No one crossed the line in the all-important Nextel Cup car owners point standings — the line drawn below 35th place, that is. The top 35 are, of course, guaranteed starters at the next race, while the rest of the teams must scramble for the remaining places. The Johnny Sauter-driven No. 70 Haas CNC Machine Tools Chevrolet remains on the good side of the line, with Sauter’s 14th-place finish padding the margin over the non-qualifying Valvoline No. 10 driven by Scott Riggs.

— The Lenox Industrial Tools 300 weekend proved the wisdom of the New England proverb, “If you don’t like the weather, wait a minute.” Thursday brought heat and humidity more worthy of Florida than New Hampshire. Friday was better, but still hot.
Saturday produced Chamber of Commerce weather with blue skies and balmy breezes, while Sunday was mainly cloudy and cool enough for sweatshirts.       

— The speedway announced its 25th-straight Nextel Cup race reserved-seat sell out, extending back to the inaugural Nextel Cup event in 1993.
Tickets remained on sale for the Sylvania 300 in September, the first race of The Chase for the Nextel Cup.

— After Kevin Harvick led 166 of 200 laps in Saturday’s Busch Series race, it was a bit of a surprise to learn that Jason Keller, who led once for five laps on his way to a 26th-place finish, was the recipient of the Wix Filters Lap Leader Award.
The key to the apparent anomaly is that drivers in the top 35 of the Nextel Cup drivers standings are ineligible for the Wix award. Keller was the only driver to lead any laps who met the award criteria.

— Kyle Busch spent his Saturday evening racing a super late model in the PASS All-Star Series 200 lapper at Epping, N.H.’s All-Star Speedway (formerly Star Speedway). He came from the back to take the checkered flag first, but he was disqualified for an illegal tire change.