Defending Champion Stewart Wins Pole at Sonoma

Tony Stewart, buoyed by his first Winston Cup road race win at Sears Point Raceway last year, came back Friday in one of Joe Gibbs’ Pontiacs to win the pole with a time of 93.476 mph in qualifying for Sunday’s Dodge/Save Mart 350K.

“That wasn’t bad,” Stewart said of his run over the two-mile, 10-turn course set among the rolling hills of Sonoma Valley’s vineyard country.

Stewart said his biggest problem was adjusting to the track’s new configuration, which included new grandstands and the elimination of the track’s drag strip as part of the road-racing course.

“It was hard to find braking points with all the scenery changes,” he said. “There used to be a bridge that I used as a gauge. The bridge is gone and I about drove off the course the first lap hard through there.

“I was like, ‘Where is my bridge at?’ Other than that, the car ran just as good as it did last year here.”

It was the first pole for Pontiac since April 2001 when Bobby Labonte was fastest at California Speedway.

Kurt Busch (93.184) and Jeff Burton (93.166) were second and third quickest, both in Jack Roush Fords. Three-time winner Jeff Gordon was fourth, in the fastest Chevrolet at 93.141.

Qualifying is one thing, running 112 laps is quite another, Stewart said.

“Sunday you have to make sure you’re not overdriving the race car,” he said. “You can’t run qualifying laps lap after lap or you’re going to wear your tires out and you’re going to wear the brakes out.

“Momentum is the important thing. It’s so different here than at the ovals where we usually run. When you go to an oval you’re talking about thousandths of a second. Here you’re talking about tenths of a second.

“Every corner that you run, there is an opportunity to gain time on somebody or lose time on somebody. But if you can get in that rhythm and your car is driving good at a place like this with it being as hard to pass, sometimes it is a little bigger an advantage than at some of the ovals.”

Stewart plans to drive a sprint car tonight in a U.S. Auto Club race at Altamont Speedway, east of Oakland, about 75 miles from here.

What will Gibbs, owner of Stewart’s Winston Cup team, think about that?

“We don’t tell him,” Stewart said, grinning. “We have learned it is much easier to ask Joe for forgiveness than permission.”

Dale Jarrett, who had to change engines because of an oil pump problem, did not try to qualify but will start in the rear.

Jarrett was still excited about taking batting practice with the San Francisco Giants on Tuesday night wearing uniform No. 88--his car number.

“I don’t know how hard they were actually throwing, but it was too fast for me,” said Jarrett. “I sure got a better appreciation of how talented these guys are at that level.”