M&M'S® News
May 21, 2009
M&M'S® Racing Qualifying Report Coca-Cola 600
Date: May 21, 2009Event: Coca-Cola 600 Qualifying (Round 12 of 36)
Series: NASCAR Sprint Cup Series
Location: Lowe’s Motor Speedway near Charlotte, N.C. (1.5-mile oval)
Pole Winner: Ryan Newman of Stewart-Haas Racing (28.651 seconds at 188.475 mph)
Kyle Busch: 2nd (28.684 seconds at 188.258 mph)
Kyle Busch qualified second for Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Lowe’s Motor Speedway near Charlotte, N.C. The driver of the No. 18 M&M'S® Toyota Camry for Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) toured the 1.5-mile oval in 28.684 seconds at 188.258 mph.
“These guys on the M&M'S® Toyota did a great job today,” said Busch, who captured the pole for last year’s Coca-Cola 600. “Steve Addington (crew chief) worked hard and made some good calls. (Turns) one and two were really good. We drove through there really nice. I didn’t want to screw up the lap getting down into (turns) three and four, so when we arced it in earlier today, we couldn’t get it turned all the way down to the bottom to get to the white line, so I shorted the corner a little bit and messed it up. I couldn’t get back to the gas, so I pinched it up too much in the center and wasn’t able to get a good run up off the corner. I wish we could’ve been on the pole two years in a row, but it’s hard to beat ‘Flying Ryan’ (Newman). We’ll take that and see what we can get in practice on Saturday for the 600.”
Busch’s JGR teammates – Denny Hamlin and Joey Logano – qualified 13th and 14th respectively. Hamlin posted a time of 28.898 seconds at 186.864, while Logano clocked in at 28.903 seconds at 186.832 mph.
Ryan Newman scored his 44th career pole and his eighth at Lowe’s Motor Speedway with a time of 28.651 seconds at 188.475 mph. Busch will start alongside Newman on the outside of row one, while Jeff Gordon (28.694 seconds at 188.193 mph), Mark Martin (28.698 seconds at 188.166 mph) and Jimmie Johnson (28.751 seconds at 187.820 mph) rounded out the top-five.
Forty-seven drivers attempted to qualify for the Coca-Cola 600, the longest on the 36-race Sprint Cup schedule. Those not making the cut in the 43-car field were J.J. Yeley, Mike Garvey, Todd Bodine and David Starr.
As far as manufacturers went, Chevrolet took four of the top-five spots, with Toyota being the lone make to crack the top-five via Busch. Dodge was next best at the hands of sixth-quick Kasey Kahne (28.801 seconds at 187.493 mph), while the top Ford came courtesy of Bill Elliott, who posted the 10th-fastest time (28.851 seconds at 187.169 mph).
The Coca-Cola 600 gets underway at 5:45 p.m. EDT on Sunday, May 24 with live coverage provided by FOX beginning with its pre-race show at 5 p.m.
