Indianapolis, IN - Reed Sorenson, fresh off last week’s Busch Series win at Gateway, captured the pole for Sunday’s Allstate 400 at the Brickyard. The No.41 Target Chip Ganassi Racing driver circled the historic 2.5-mile superspeedway in 48.858 seconds (184.207 m.p.h.).
Graffiti Wall reports the pole victory was the first of Sorenson’s Nextel Cup career. His previous best start was a third place at the New Hampshire International Speedway in early July.
“We knew all three of our cars were fast, we just didn’t know if the early draw would hurt us,” said Sorenson. “Being my first pole, it’s pretty cool to do it here.”
Starting alongside Sorenson will be his teammate Juan Pablo Montoya, who posted a second-best time of 49.048 seconds.
“We did a lot of work, but Reed was going to be tough to beat,” said Montoya.
Montoya has a chance to become the first driver to win both the Indianapolis 500 and the Brickyard 400. Two former Indy 500 champions have raced in a Brickyard 400 - A.J. Foyt (finished 30th) and Danny Sullivan finished 33rd), both in 1994.
Ryan Newman (49.053) and Dale Earnhardt Jr. (49.068) will make up row two.
While racing began at Indy in 1909, Nextel Cup has only been coming here since 1994 when Jeff Gordon won the inaugural event. Gordon also won in 1998, 2001 and 2004. Other “Cup” drivers to win at Indy include: Dale Earnhardt (1995), Ricky Rudd (1997), Dale Jarrett (1996, 1999), Bobby Labonte (2000), Bill Elliott (2002), Kevin Harvick (2003), Tony Stewart (2005) and Jimmie Johnson (2006).
For the past two years, the winner at the Brickyard has gone on to win the series championship. All told, the winner of this race has won the title in six of 13 years.
Not only did Johnson win at the Brickyard and the Nextel Cup title in 2006, but he completed a rare sweep, winning Daytona and Indy in the same year, only the second time that it has been accomplished (Jarrett - 1996). Johnson will start 19th in the 43-car field.
Other drivers of note and their starting positions: Kurt Busch (sixth), Jeff Burton (seventh), Denny Hamlin (10th), Mark Martin (13th), Stewart (14th), Harvick (20th) and Gordon (21st).
The race is set to drop the green flag on Sunday at 2 p.m. (et).
