Ok so after a washout last week, which saw no points awarded at all, we finally had some qualifying to talk about. After a season dominated by Jeff Gordon and Ryan Newman, it is rather refreshing to see that for the fourth race in a row (excluding Daytona) we have our fourth first-time pole man for this year; Casey Mears.
Casey earned his first pole with HMS, and joined Jeff Gordon as the second HMS car to start from pole.
Because of that, HMS join JGR as the only teams to have two drivers land a pole this year. Casey seems to be hitting his straps with his new team after clinching his first career win in the Coke 600 a few weeks ago. He'll line up beside Martin Truex Jr, who continues his red-hot form, with Ryan Newman back in third. Championship leader, Gordon, will start on row six so Ryan managed to eat into his lead by six points.
After Chicagoland, the table looks like this:
Tez's NASCAR Qualifying Championship - Standings after round 19
Casey was the man on the move this week, going from equal last to outright 22nd. The other guy who gained was Truex Jr, popping up into the top 10 for the first time this year.
Tez is a rare creature; an Australian who was living in New Zealand before moving to Canada. He's also a Civil Engineer who is hoping to spend his Monday to Friday sitting in front of a computer surfing the inter...uh, working hard for an Engineering Consultant or Contractor when he finds a job. His heart is torn between his two loves; F1 and NASCAR.
Due to his high interest in those, his blogs will likely focus on them with the occasional foray into sports that don't get much (if any) mention on this website. All blogs and/or comments will more than likely have his usual dollop of sarcasm and general Aussie spin on them.
Amazingly, he also managed to score 2 MiB nominations on consecutive days (August 5 & 6, 2007) after announcing he had been keeping track of them...he's considering hiding under his bed as a result.
