Newman claims 51st career pole at New Hampshire

Twice broken record, and that’s exactly what Ryan Newman did on Friday at New Hampshire when we went out and turned a lap which broke Kasey Kahne record set earlier in the day. But not stopping there Newman on his second circuit during qualifying went out and backed up his first lap with another record breaker of 27.904 seconds at 136.497mph to grab the pole for Sunday’s event.

“Everything about qualifying weighs in to having a better chance in the race, with the pit selection and with track position to start and, obviously, knowing you have a fast race car,” said Newman

This was Newman’s seventh  career pole at the “Magic Mile” following behind him was Kahne with a lap slightly over 136 mph and Gordon with a 136.063 mph laps all of which breaking the old track record set back in July by Brad Keselowski.

“I came off Turn 4 (approaching the green flag) just wiggling and sliding, and I thought, ‘OK, maybe I can make up for it in (Turns) 1 and 2, and then off of 2 really bad, and at that point, it was just all about regrouping and trying to put a second lap together.” Gordon said.

“I was shaking when I got out of the car,” Gordon said, “because that first lap was so hairy and on the edge that, the second lap, I had to really try to get the car to run really straight and not make any mistakes, but I knew we had a lot of ground to make up.

NOTE: Edwards will start in 26th after getting into the wall and requiring the team to work on the right rear of the car.