Stewart Wins Pole as Chase Begins

Tony Stewart struck just the right note Saturday for a guy hoping to get off to the right start in NASCAR’s 10-man, 10-race championship playoff, winning the Nextel Cup pole at New Hampshire International Speedway.

“It’s a perfect place to start when you’re in the Chase for the championship,” Stewart said after driving his No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Chevrolet to the fastest lap of 131.143 mph on the 1.058-mile oval.

“We’ve done everything we needed to do so far this weekend,” the series leader said. “The car was really good in race trim and now we’re on the pole. Now we’ve got everybody else in the top 10 scratching their heads wondering what we’re doing.”

Stewart, who won at the speedway in July, was easily the best of the championship contenders in qualifying for today’s Sylvania 300. Among the others in the Chase, Matt Kenseth was fourth, Rusty Wallace seventh, Jeremy Mayfield eighth and Jimmie Johnson 10th.

The rest of the Chase drivers were farther back, with reigning series champion Kurt Busch 12th, Ryan Newman 13th, Mark Martin 15th, Carl Edwards 24th and Greg Biffle 26th.

Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt Jr., NASCAR’s two biggest stars, failed to make the Chase and go into the final 10 events of 2005 with new crew chiefs, hoping to build momentum for next season.

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Rick Crawford fought off series points leaders Dennis Setzer and Ted Musgrave to win the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series event at New Hampshire International Speedway.

The win in the Sylvania 200 was the fourth for Crawford and his first since April 2004 at Martinsville. To get it, the driver from Mobile, Ala., had to outrun the two strongest drivers in the series over the last 30 laps.

“What a great race among the veterans out there,” Crawford said. “I needed to run my line and make sure Musgrave and Setzer battled it out. They did and I won.”

The ninth caution flag of the day gave Setzer and Musgrave one last shot at the leader, but Crawford was able to hold the two challengers off after the green flag waved with five laps to go in the 200-lap event.

The race featured 17 lead changes among eight drivers.