"Truex, Bono get Redemption, Daytona 500 Pole; Mark Martin Starts Second"
Despite the sturm und drang of the off season, Martin Truex, Jr and crew chief Kevin "Bono" Manion led the way for the merged Earnhardt Ganassi racing squad with a second career pole position in NASCAR Sprint Cup's biggest race. Truex qualified his Bass Pro Shops Chevy Impala with a 47.872 second lap of the 2 and 1/2 mile Daytona International Speedway, which translates to a speed of 188.001 miles an hour. Sharing the front row is Mark Martin who clocked in at 187.717 miles an hour. Some of the other notables: 2008 winner Ryan Newman ran third; last night's Bud Shootout winner and 2007 Champion Kevin "Happy" Harvick ran 49th of 56 qualifiers. Three time and defending Sprint Cup Champion Jimmie Johnson clocked in 6th.
Scanners are neat things. We had the FOX TV intercom channel up and heard the announcers (Mike Joy, Darrell Waltrip and Larry McReynolds) comment off air about the crowd, which was down, despite weather the rest of the United States would envy. There will likely be good seats available for Thursday's Daytona Duels...and the rest of the weekend, too.
Now the redemption--Truex's team was whacked by the lash of NASCAR justice last July here at the "World Center of Racing" for irregularities in inspection. The team wanted to show that it had something. It did.
Mark Martin is jacked up for this race...he, too has unfinished business, after the 2007 loss to "Happy" Harvick.
We're off until late Wednesday unless there's some developments.
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