NASCAR New Hampshire Starting Lineup: Ryan Newman Wins Pole In Unusual Qualifying Session

Ryan Newman won the pole for Sunday’s NASCAR Chase race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, but did so in one of the most unusual Sprint Cup Series qualifying sessions in memory.

“It was a little dramatic,” Newman said with a chuckle. “It’s a tough situation, it’s a tough call.”

Boy, was it ever.

With five cars to go in the session, there was enough drizzle that NASCAR momentarily held up qualifying. A NASCAR official asked Juan Pablo Montoya – the next driver in line – if he wanted to make his lap, but Montoya declined and suggested Jimmie Johnson (who was on deck) go instead.

Johnson refused and said it was Montoya’s turn. NASCAR reportedly couldn’t find anyone among the five remaining cars willing to give it a try – nor did NASCAR officials put anyone on the five-minute clock – so they brought the jet driers out onto the track.

“Don’t blame it on me,” Montoya told his team on the radio. “I don’t want to be the guinea pig and wreck the car because they think it’s dry enough.”

With NASCAR’s new qualifying rules, those five drivers who hadn’t gone had much to lose by attempting a lap. If qualifying was rained out, they’d start in the Nos. 1-5 positions due to speeds in the first practice; make a lap on a slick track, and they might lose 20 or 30 spots.

Therefore, there was no incentive for them to willingly make a lap – though some other drivers wished they would.

Kurt Busch, for example, was sitting third during the rain delay but would have had to start 32nd if qualifying was canceled. He called the situation “quite a predicament.”

“Really?” he said. “It’s not raining at all. “We need to be qualifying cars.”

Countered Johnson during the delay: “You just want a dry racetrack to run on. ... That’s all I’m really after.”

After seven jet driers took to the track in order to get the racing surface back in favorable conditions, NASCAR sent Montoya out to make his lap.

It didn’t go well.

“They know the track is in bad condition,” an angry Montoya said afterward. “We got a car that’s fast enough to be on the pole, and we’re like 27th. It’s a frickin’ joke!”

Johnson then pulled out to take his lap, but immediately returned to pit road without recording a time because he said it was raining.

NASCAR waited until the sprinkles went away, and then finally sent Johnson out. The five-time champ recorded the seventh-fastest speed at the time.

“I’ve always wondered what would happen if the drivers didn’t think the track was dry enough,” Johnson said. “I learned a lot through this process today.”

Jeff Gordon, Kasey Kahne and Newman all then went in succession, with Kahne and Newman each recording the fastest times at that point.

“The track conditions were not that bad,” Gordon said. “I still wouldn’t have wanted to be Juan Pablo (and have to go first after the delay).”

Newman and Kahne will start on the front row for Sunday’s race, followed by Brian Vickers, Greg Biffle and Kurt Busch.

Here is the NASCAR starting lineup for New Hampshire Motor Speedway (with where each driver WOULD HAVE had to start if the qualifying session was rained out in parentheses):

DNQ: Steve Park, T.J. Bell (would have made race)