Newman Wins Third Straight Pole
Ryan Newman won his third consecutive Nextel Cup pole Friday afternoon at Pocono Raceway and it was his fourth pole in the 2007 season. It was Newman's 2nd Pocono pole, his last one coming in July of 2003, a race that he won. Newman has 41 career poles in 202 starts. Newman's pole broke the string of two by the pole sitter and the winner of the past two Pocono races, Denny Hamlin.

Hamlin will start on the outside of Sunday's Pocono 500 and last race winner, Martin Truex Jr. will roll off in the third spot. Kyle Busch qualified in fourth with Clint Bowyer was fifth. Rounding out the top ten are Tony Stewart, Jimmie Johnson, Kasey Kahne, Brian Vickers and Jeff Burton. Michael Waltrip and his teammate Dale Jarrett failed to qualify as did Mike Bliss, Kevin Lepage, Jeremy Mayfield and Kenny Wallace. Waltrip has made only two of the fourteen races this year. Bill Elliott, driving the No. 21 Wood Brothers Little Debbie Ford, took a Champion's Provisional, the first one that he has used.
For Full Starting Lineup...     (Insider Racing News)

Kurt Busch Penalized
NASCAR announced today that Kurt Busch, driver of the No. 2 Dodge in the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series, has been penalized 100 championship driver points, fined $100,000 and placed on NASCAR probation until Dec. 31, 2007 for violating Section 12-4-A (actions detrimental to stock car racing – reckless driving; endangering a crew member on pit road) of the 2007 NASCAR rule book.

Car owner Roger Penske has also been penalized with the loss of 100 championship owner points due to his driver’s infraction. The violation occurred on pit road during the race at Dover International Speedway on June 4.

Statement From Penske Racing
Penske Racing acknowledges the fine, penalty and probation that has been imposed by NASCAR relative to the pit incident involving Kurt Busch at this week's Dover race and will not appeal. Safety is paramount in motorsports and must not be compromised.

"I regret the incident that occurred at Dover and apologize to NASCAR, my sponsors, the fans, my Penske Racing team and Joe Gibbs Racing. I understand that safety is crucial to the sport and I accept the points penalty, fine and probation that NASCAR has imposed on me," said Kurt Busch.

Penske Racing will continue to support Kurt and look forward to racing at Pocono.

Bodine Wins At Texas, Again
Travis Kvapil was leading the Sam's Town 400 at Texas Motor Speedway on Friday night, with four laps to go, and didn't win the race. Ron Hornaday led the most laps, yet he didn't win the Craftsman Truck race either. Johnny Benson looked like he had the truck to beat early in the race, but his engine blew up. Pole sitter, Todd Bodine spent an extraordinary time in the pits.

Starting from the pole, Bodine had engine problems in the middle of the race, well actually the crew wasn't sure what the problems were, it was some kind of fuel malfunction that affected the Toyota engine. The team considered changing the carburetor but buckled down the hood to stay on the lead lap. Bodine gave the engine a good rev and thinks he "blew" the line out. No matter what it was, Bodine and team never gave up and a late caution left him near the front, with a chance to win. That's all he wanted, was a chance to win.

The race restarted with five laps remaining and with four to go, Kvapil led Bodine, Mike Skinner and Ron Hornaday. Bodine wanted by and Kvapil put one too many blocks on Bodine. They made contact and Kvapil went spinnig, wrecking his truck in the process.

"Todd got a pretty good restart," said Kvapil. "I was hoping to get a little better jump on him and just coming off of four I was flat on the mat and it’s just drafting. He got a good (run) on me and I tried to hold him off. I saw him going high, so I kind of went high. As soon as I saw him going low I don’t know if he just clipped me, I started coming down. I wanted to win pretty bad.”

"I hate that. That's not how I wanted to win. Travis is a great kid," Bodine said. "You can only block one direction. That's the nature of the beast, I had fresh tires. I was going to go high, he blocked me. We went to the bottom, he was still down there. It's a shame."