Nascar: Toyota earns first Nextel Cup pole win

Loudon, NH (Sports Network) - Dave Blaney won the pole for Sunday's Lenox Industrial Tools 300 to give manufacturer Toyota its first Nextel Cup pole victory. The No.22 Bill Davis Racing Toyota circled the 1.058- mile flat oval in 29.426 seconds (129.437 m.p.h.).
When told of his time, Blaney could only say "Wow!"
The pole victory was Blaney's first of the season and second of his Nextel Cup career. His other pole victory was in 2003 at Rockingham.
"We've had a tough year, we've had so many DNFs (did not finish) it's been killing us," said Blaney. "But the guys never give up, their attitudes are great, they dig in...and its paying off."
Starting alongside Blaney will be Kurt Busch who posted a second-best time of 29.484 seconds.
Reed Sorenson (29.620) and Johnny Sauter (29.640) will make up row two. Infineon Raceway winner Juan Montoya was fifth quickest.
Other drivers of note and their starting positions: Dale Earnhardt Jr. (sixth), Kevin Harvick (seventh), Jeff Gordon (eighth), Jimmie Johnson (10th), Denny Hamlin (11th), Ryan Newman (12th) Tony Stewart (14th), Kyle Busch (18th) and Matt Kenseth (31st).
Johnson swept both events at NHIS in 2003 and Kurt Busch matched that in 2004. Tony Stewart won the summer of 2005 event and just missed, finishing second, in the fall race that year.
Last year Kyle Busch won this race while Kevin Harvick finished fifth. Harvick would bring that knowledge to the fall race and win it to take the early lead in last year's "Chase."
Harvick was pretty good last Sunday, finishing second to Montoya. He lead his RCR teammates to a two-three-four finish. All three are currently qualified for the "Chase" in what is turning out to be a very good year for Richard Childress Racing.
"Kevin is our leader on the road-course thing and really has made us as competitive as we are," said Burton. "That's as much to do with our performance today as anything is Kevin pushing them (the crew) to get better fuel mileage, to build better cars."
The race is set to drop the green flag on Sunday at 2:30 p.m. (et).