Blaney On New Hampshire Pole
Dave Blaney, driver of the No. Caterpillar Bill Davis Racing Toyota, is on the pole for Sunday's Lenox Industrial Tools 300 at New Hampshire International Speedway. Blaney, dubbed the "Buckeye Bullet", toured the one-mile track in 29.426 seconds, translating to a speed of 129.437 mph to win the second career Nextel Cup pole. Blaney's last pole came at Rockingham Speedway in 2003. Blaney's run gave Toyota it's first NASCAR Nextel Cup pole. Kurt Busch, looked to be in trouble in the first practice at the speedway with handling problems, but the team made wholesale changes and he put his Penske Racing Dodge on the outside pole with a speed of 129.182 mph.

A rejuvenated Reed Sorenson will start third and Johnny Sauter will be in the fourth spot. Last week's winner at Infineon, Juan Pablo Montoya, is on a roll and will start fifth followed by Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kevin Harvick, Jeff Gordon, Martin Truex Jr. and Jimmie Johnson to round out the top ten. Six drivers failed to qualify. Newly named driver for the No. 49 BAM car, Chad Chaffin, will go home along with rookie A.J. Allmendinger, Kenny Wallace, Dale Jarrett, Michael Waltrip and Scott Riggs. Both Waltrip and Riggs looked to have their hands full in qualifying. For Riggs, it is the second straight week that the team has failed to qualify and for Waltrip, it's the 14th race that his car did not make a race.

NOTE..A post qualifying inspection revealed that the No. 83 Toyota, driven by Brian Vickers, was disqualified from competition on Sunday because the car's left front corner was too low and the team was sent home. Chad Chaffin was the beneficiary of the disqualification and will race on Sunday.
For Full Starting Lineup...     (Insider Racing News)

New Hampshire Goodyear Tire Notes
Both the NASCAR Nextel Cup and Busch Series will run the same tire codes at New Hampshire this weekend -- this is Goodyear's intermediate/flat track tire setup, and has been run by Nextel Cup and Busch Series teams at companion weekends at Phoenix and Richmond earlier this season -- Busch and Craftsman Truck Series teams also ran these tire codes at Milwaukee last weekend -- this is the first time Goodyear has brought this tire setup for teams to run at New Hampshire -- as on most NASCAR one-mile ovals, teams will not run inner liners in their tires at New Hampshire.

Kenseth Wins At Madison
Continuing to add to his stellar list of accomplishments, Matt Kenseth drove to victory Tuesday night at the Madison International Speedway in dominating fashion in the First Supply All-Star Challenge presented by Capitol City Harley-Davidson to notch his first win in the annual late model special.

“Im just glad I didn’t have to race against any other Pathfinder Chassis, ” Kenseth commented alluding to his potent ride that led 78 laps of the 100-lap event. “From the first lap on the race track, I knew we had a great car, ” Kenseth continued, “It turned so great in the middle it was just fun to drive. ”

Starting from the inside of the second row, Kenseth followed early leader Steve Carlson for the opening 21 laps before seizing an opportunity to take command of the race with an outside move exiting turn two on lap 22.

”He’s (Carlson) so smooth, I knew he wasn’t going to miss the bottom, ”Kenseth stated, describing his early battle for the top spot. “So I just went to the outside and gassed it. ”

Once out front, Kenseth was never seriously challenged, easing out to a substantial lead following restarts through six caution periods before driving to a twelve car-length victory over Mark Eswein and Nathan Haseleu.

Eswein and Haseleu provided the best drama on the speedway in the closing laps as they raced door to door for the runner-up spot with Eswein edging Haseleu at the finish.

“I’m real proud of our team and the effort, ”Eswein stated. “My two favorite NASCAR drivers are Matt Kenseth and Tony Stewart (who finished 7th) and Nate (Haseleu) is my good friend, so it was a fun night......More ...(autoracingdaily.com)

Infineon Highest Rated Sports Event
The NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Infineon Raceway was the highest-rated televised sporting event last weekend nationwide.

The event earned a 4.7 rating on TNT, with the next closest sporting event being a Major League Baseball game on FOX (2.8). The pre-race show on TNT netted a 2.7 rating, and NASCAR on TNT Live (prior to pre-race) garnered a 1.8 rating.

Moreover, it was the highest-rated NASCAR NEXTEL Cup race broadcast on TNT this year, and the 4.7 rating was also better than the average rating for a NEXTEL Cup race that aired on TNT during the 2006 season (4.5).

One rating point equals one-percent of all U.S. households. All data used was obtained from Nielsen Media Research.