Check out this lap that Junior layed down during qualifying Friday! He beat Cousin Carl by more than two tenths. This will give Hendrick Motorsports its first pole of the 2008 season. You could hear the crowd erupt with screams of joy as the lap times went up on the board and the number 88 went to the top of the pole!

When asked in the post qualifying interview Dale Junior said that those laps didn’t feel any different than the ones that he ran in practice, the car was just real smooth and had great power. That is good news for the Junior Nation as this may translate into  the first win for Dale Junior since coming to Hendrick Motorsports. He usually does real well at Texas, with a win in 2000 and 3 top 5’s, and 7 top tens, Dale Earnhardt Junior is no stranger to success at Texas. Couple that with the dominating race shops at Hendrick Motorsports and Junior fans have something to smile about.

In other news

Michael Mcdowell slammed nose first into the Safer Barrier in his number 00 Michael Waltrip Racing Toyota Camry. He then did ten to 15 barrel rolls and ended up right side up on the back stretch. This was a crash reminiscent of the one that took Dale Earnhardt’s life at the Daytona 500. The amazing thing is that he got out of the car and walked away from it. Here go watch this then come back here. David Pool wrote in his blog that Dale Earnhardt Senior saved that young mans life. I have to agree with you David, if it were not for all the new safety equipment that came about from Dale Senior’s death, Including the Safer Barrier, This young man might very well be dead right now. His car will be transported to the Nascar Development Lab in Concord North Carolina by Nascar to be studied in order to obtain important data that comes from the installation of on board data recorders. These are another one of the innovations in safety that Nascar has mandated in the new cars since Dale Earnhardt’s death. These recorders measure and store important crash dynamics in many areas of the car, from speed at impact to g-forces loaded into the drivers seat on impact. If you ever had any doubts about the safety of this new car just like Larry Mac said, they should all be gone now! Thank you to the University of Nebraska for their research into the safer barrier too! My hats off to you folks. It really works!

The Lineup

Here is how they will line up Sunday for the Samsung 500.

POS CAR DRIVER MAKE SPONSOR SPEED TIME BEHIND
1 88 Dale Earnhardt Jr. Chevrolet National Guard / AMP Energy 190.907 28.286 Leader
2 99 Carl Edwards Ford Aflac 189.487 28.498 -0.212
3 18 Kyle Busch Toyota Interstate Batteries 189.069 28.561 -0.275
4 12 Ryan Newman Dodge Samsung HDTV / ALLTEL 189.042 28.565 -0.279
5 48 Jimmie Johnson Chevrolet Lowe’s 188.772 28.606 -0.320
6 44 David Reutimann Toyota UPS 188.732 28.612 -0.326
7 6 David Ragan Ford AAA Insurance 188.534 28.642 -0.356
8 17 Matt Kenseth Ford DEWALT 188.475 28.651 -0.365
9 84 Mike Skinner Toyota Red Bull 188.390 28.664 -0.378
10 9 Kasey Kahne Dodge Budweiser 188.245 28.686 -0.400
11 42 Juan Montoya Dodge Texaco / Havoline 188.160 28.699 -0.413
12 1 Martin Truex Jr. Chevrolet Bass Pro Shops / Tracker 188.140 28.702 -0.416
13 66 Scott Riggs Chevrolet State Water Heaters 188.009 28.722 -0.436
14 11 Denny Hamlin Toyota FedEx Ground 187.990 28.725 -0.439
15 7 Robby Gordon Dodge Jim Beam 187.931 28.734 -0.448
16 16 Greg Biffle Ford DISH Network / DishDVRs 187.865 28.744 -0.458
17 77 Sam Hornish Jr.* Dodge Mobil 1 187.741 28.763 -0.477
18 24 Jeff Gordon Chevrolet DuPont 187.611 28.783 -0.497
19 15 Paul Menard Chevrolet Quaker State / Menards 187.598 28.785 -0.499
20 55 Michael Waltrip Toyota NAPA AUTO PARTS 187.591 28.786 -0.500
21 29 Kevin Harvick Chevrolet Shell / Pennzoil 187.493 28.801 -0.515
22 5 Casey Mears Chevrolet Cheez-It / CARQUEST 187.474 28.804 -0.518
23 2 Kurt Busch Dodge Miller Lite 187.311 28.829 -0.543
24 20 Tony Stewart Toyota The Home Depot 187.195 28.847 -0.561
25 07 Clint Bowyer Chevrolet Jack Daniel’s 187.156 28.853 -0.567
26 19 Elliott Sadler Dodge Best Buy / Garmin 187.007 28.876 -0.590
27 10 Patrick Carpentier* Dodge Valvoline 186.981 28.880 -0.594
28 21 Bill Elliott Ford Motorcraft 186.974 28.881 -0.595
29 22 Dave Blaney Toyota Caterpillar 186.948 28.885 -0.599
30 43 Bobby Labonte Dodge Cheerios Racing / Sam’s Club 186.935 28.887 -0.601
31 8 Mark Martin Chevrolet U.S. Army 186.793 28.909 -0.623
32 26 Jamie McMurray Ford Crown Royal Cask No. 16 186.645 28.932 -0.646
33 96 J.J. Yeley Toyota DLP HDTV 186.220 28.998 -0.712
34 01 Regan Smith* Chevrolet DEI / Principal Financial Group 186.046 29.025 -0.739
35 31 Jeff Burton Chevrolet Prilosec OTC 185.995 29.033 -0.747
36 83 Brian Vickers Toyota Red Bull 185.752 29.071 -0.785
37 34 John Andretti Chevrolet Front Row Motorsports 185.669 29.084 -0.798
38 28 Travis Kvapil Ford Yates Racing 185.631 29.090 -0.804
39 70 Jeremy Mayfield Chevrolet Haas Automation 185.350 29.134 -0.848
40 00 Michael McDowell+* Toyota Aaron’s Dream Machine 182.933 29.519 -1.233
41 38 David Gilliland+ Ford Yates Racing - - -
42 41 Reed Sorenson+ Dodge Target - - -
43 78 Joe Nemechek Chevrolet Furniture Row
/ DenverMattress.com		 185.191 29.159 -0.873
Did Not Qualify
44 40 Dario Franchitti* Dodge Kennametal 185.122 29.170 -0.884
45 45 Chad McCumbee Dodge Marathon American Spirit Motor Oil 183.736 29.390 -1.104
46 08 Burney Lamar Dodge rhino’s energy drink 181.996 29.671 -1.385

Race coverage starts at 12:30 with pre race on FOX. The green flag should drop around 1 p.m. central time. Texas is usually a pretty good race to watch as it is a nice and smooth 1.5 mile intermediate speedway. It is forgiving if you have you car dialed in, but a terror for those that don’t. You know that I will be pulling strongly for Junior so may the Yellow Rose Of Texas smile down on him Sunday!

Keep up the good work you do for us out there on the big road and please stay safe out there!