Times wires
Friday, March 18, 2011
Edwards continues Roush Fenway roll
BRISTOL, Tenn. — Roush Fenway Racing continued its strong qualifying runs Friday by sweeping the front row at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Carl Edwards turned a lap of 128.014 mph in a Ford to knock teammate Greg Biffle from the top starting spot for Sunday's Sprint Cup race. Biffle (127.622) was second.
Roush Fenway has earned the past three poles including Edwards Feb. 25 at Las Vegas.
Regan Smith qualified a career-best third in a Chevrolet, and his 6.25 qualifying average this season is best in the series. Paul Menard was fourth in a Chevy, and David Ragan put three Roush drivers in the top five.
"This is fun; the cars have just been great," Edwards said. "Greg motivated me. I didn't think anybody was going to be able to go that fast."
It was Edwards' ninth pole, and fifth in the past 19 races.
Sarrazin, Peugeot tops at Sebring
Stephane Sarrazin ran a lap of 1 minute, 46.571 seconds to earn the pole for today's 12 Hours of Sebring, the season opener for the American Le Mans Series.
Sarrazin, in a Peugeot 908, will share driving duties with Pedro Lamy and Franck Montagny. The car's time was more than a second better than the second-place Audi of Timo Bernhard, Romain Dumas and Mike Rockenfeller.
Belleair resident Patrick Long will start 27th of 56 entries alongside teammates Joerg Bergmeister and Marc Lieb in a Porsche 911 GT3. They qualified sixth-best in the GT class.
Franchitti's day has a ring to it
Defending Indianapolis 500 champion Dario Franchitti received his champion's ring Friday. Former NBA star Larry Bird presented the two-time Indy winner with his trophy at a news conference at Conseco Fieldhouse, home of the Indiana Pacers.
Elsewhere
Rafael Matos earned an IndyCar ride with the new AFS team for the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. Matos, 29, was with Luczo Dragon Racing the past two seasons and was the IndyCar Rookie of the Year in 2009. … A recent study shows that Jeff Gordon has generated more television time for his sponsor than any other NASCAR driver through three races this season. The data collected by Joyce Julius & Associates shows Gordon's sponsors have been on TV for one hour, 50 minutes and 16 seconds over three races. That totals nearly $7.6 million of in-broadcast exposure value for new sponsor Drive To End Hunger. Carl Edwards is second in the rankings and Tony Stewart is third. … On Thursday, NASCAR driver Brian Keselowski had emergency surgery to remove his gall bladder and will miss at least two races. His team said the older brother of Sprint Cup star Brad Keselowski was expected to be released from the hospital Friday.
Times wires