Life on the Road – Trucking News Blog

A rain delay didn’t douse Patrick Carentier’s hopes for his first pole, He knew that a cooler, faster race track could be just the ticket that he was looking for. Reed Sorenson was on the pole when a rain shower delayed qualifying with 21 more drivers to go at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway. A cooler faster track relegated reed back to sixth when all was said and done and the Canadian road course driver was at the top of the speed charts for the first time in his new career in Nascar Sprint Cup racing.

Sunday Carpentier will lead the field to the green flag in the Lenox Industrial Tools 301 at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Another road racing giant, Dario Franchitti will start the race in the top ten with a seventh starting spot on the grid. And to think that I thought at the beginning of the season that the road racers would have a rough time of it this year trying to adjust to the new, much heavier car? Well, win one first, then I will be sold completely. And I would be remiss if I did not mention that Dale Earnhardt Junior qualified solidly in the top ten in the fifth position. You have to go way down the chart to the twenty seventh position to find points leader Kyle Busch.

Here is how they will take the green on Sunday.

POS	CAR	DRIVER	MAKE	SPONSOR	SPEED	TIME	BEHIND
1	10	Patrick Carpentier*	Dodge	Berlin City Auto Group	129.776	29.349	Leader
2	43	Bobby Labonte	Dodge	Cheerios / Betty Crocker	129.059	29.512	-0.163
3	66	Scott Riggs	Chevrolet	State Water Heaters	128.976	29.531	-0.182
4	29	Kevin Harvick	Chevrolet	Shell / Pennzoil	128.976	29.531	-0.182
5	88	Dale Earnhardt Jr.	Chevrolet	National Guard / AMP Energy	128.885	29.552	-0.203
6	41	Reed Sorenson	Dodge	Target	128.828	29.565	-0.216
7	40	Dario Franchitti*	Dodge	The Guitar Hero / Target	128.824	29.566	-0.217
8	1	Martin Truex Jr.	Chevrolet	Bass Pro Shops / Tracker	128.645	29.607	-0.258
9	17	Matt Kenseth	Ford	DEWALT	128.624	29.612	-0.263
10	84	A.J. Allmendinger	Toyota	Red Bull	128.624	29.612	-0.263
11	19	Elliott Sadler	Dodge	Hancock / Best Buy / Garmin	128.576	29.623	-0.274
12	11	Denny Hamlin	Toyota	FedEx Ground	128.498	29.641	-0.292
13	26	Jamie McMurray	Ford	IRWIN Industrial Tools	128.459	29.650	-0.301
14	9	Kasey Kahne	Dodge	Budweiser	128.424	29.658	-0.309
15	16	Greg Biffle	Ford	3M	128.415	29.660	-0.311
16	12	Ryan Newman	Dodge	Alltel	128.385	29.667	-0.318
17	99	Carl Edwards	Ford	DISH Network / DishDVRs	128.337	29.678	-0.329
18	07	Clint Bowyer	Chevrolet	Jack Daniel’s	128.299	29.687	-0.338
19	24	Jeff Gordon	Chevrolet	DuPont	128.273	29.693	-0.344
20	77	Sam Hornish Jr.*	Dodge	Mobil 1	128.251	29.698	-0.349
21	28	Travis Kvapil	Ford	Ford. Drive one.	128.117	29.729	-0.380
22	7	Robby Gordon	Dodge	Robby Gordon Motorsports	128.057	29.743	-0.394
23	48	Jimmie Johnson	Chevrolet	Lowe’s	128.048	29.745	-0.396
24	5	Casey Mears	Chevrolet	CARQUEST / Kellogg’s	127.984	29.760	-0.411
25	01	Regan Smith*	Chevrolet	DEI / Principal Financial Group	127.872	29.786	-0.437
26	2	Kurt Busch	Dodge	Miller Lite	127.859	29.789	-0.440
27	18	Kyle Busch	Toyota	Interstate Batteries	127.782	29.807	-0.458
28	20	Tony Stewart	Toyota	The Home Depot	127.731	29.819	-0.470
29	44	David Reutimann	Toyota	UPS	127.722	29.821	-0.472
30	96	J.J. Yeley	Toyota	DLP HDTV	127.662	29.835	-0.486
31	31	Jeff Burton	Chevrolet	LENOX Industrial Tools	127.649	29.838	-0.489
32	42	Juan Montoya	Dodge	Texaco / Havoline	127.560	29.859	-0.510
33	38	David Gilliland	Ford	FreeCreditRep ort.com	127.444	29.886	-0.537
34	45	Terry Labonte	Dodge	Victory Junction Gang	127.397	29.897	-0.548
35	6	David Ragan	Ford	AAA Insurance / Red Sox	127.312	29.917	-0.568
36	55	Michael Waltrip	Toyota	NAPA AUTO PARTS	126.981	29.995	-0.646
37	70	Johnny Sauter	Chevrolet	Atlas Copco	126.964	29.999	-0.650
38	00	Michael McDowell*	Toyota	Champion Mortgage	126.846	30.027	-0.678
39	8	Aric Almirola	Chevrolet	U.S. Army	126.648	30.074	-0.725
40	83	Brian Vickers	Toyota	Red Bull	126.572	30.092	-0.743
41	22	Dave Blaney	Toyota	Caterpillar	126.374	30.139	-0.790
42	15	Paul Menard+	Chevrolet	Sylvania / Menards	126.148	30.193	-0.844
43	78	Joe Nemechek	Chevrolet	Furniture Row / DenverMattress.com	126.391	30.135	-0.786
Did Not Qualify
44	34	Tony Raines	Chevrolet	doorstopnatio n.com	126.307	30.155	-0.806
45	21	Marcos Ambrose	Ford	Little Debbie Honey Buns	125.422	30.368	-1.019

Cup Series final practice is on Speed at 11:30 A.M. eastern time today and  race coverage starts at 12:30 A.M. eastern time Sunday morning with pre race coverage on TNT. Green flag coverage starts at 2 P.M. eastern also on TNT. I am excited as my cable company has the TNT HD channel!

Stay safe out there and thank you for the job you do for our country.