Ryan Newman will try to give Dodge its first win of the year.

DARLINGTON, S.C. -- Talk about truth in advertising.

A pair of Dodge Chargers will lead the field to the green flag Saturday night for the Dodge Charger 500.


Kasey Kahne won his first pole since last June at Pocono, lapping the 1.366-mile Darlington Raceway at 28.295 seconds, 170.024 miles per hour. Ryan Newman, another Dodge Charger driver, was second at 169.555 mph.

For Kahne, the fact that Dodge Chargers swept the front row was pretty cool. It also validated his decision to get his hair cut for the first time in a long while.

"I finally got my hair cut this week," Kahne said. "I went to Great Clips and got my hair cut and tried to change some things. When were finishing second all the time, I had short hair, so I figured I'd change it back."

On the Dodge sweep, it figured that Kahne would be one or the other on the front row. After winning the pole here for this race last year, he is the only repeat pole winner since 1999.

His run ended a streak of eight different pole winners in 12 races (qualifying was rained out three times).

"It's pretty awesome that we're able to have two Dodge drivers in the front row for this race," Kahne said. "For us to get the Dodge Charger 500 pole was great, and we're looking forward to the race. It's a great feeling to get a Bud Pole this year. I think it's been since the middle of June that we got our last one."


Ryan Newman

Lineup
Dodge Charger 500
Pos. Driver Make
1. Kasey Kahne Dodge
2. Ryan Newman Dodge
3. Greg Biffle Ford
4. Elliott Sadler Ford
5. Brian Vickers Chevrolet

Newman, who has never started worse than 12th here in six starts, continued his streak of starting every race this season from the top 10. He's confident that his Charger will be fast come race time.

"I can't say this is our best chance at winning a race, but I'll definitely say we've got a good shot at winning this race from a speed standpoint, from the fact that we've run a lot of laps here and run good in the past," Newman said. "Starting from the front row is a good thing."

Taking a look down the qualifying results, it seemed that the Dodges stayed in pairs. In addition to Kahne on the front row, a pair of Chargers occupy the fourth row with Sterling Marlin and Jeremy Mayfield aboard.

NASCAR ought to be happy with the parity aspects, but Dodge is happiest by sweeping the front row at its own race.

Nine of the 14 Dodges in the field were in the top half of the field, including Carl Long, whose No. 80 Dodge outqualified Dale Jarrett, Kevin Harvick, Matt Kenseth, Jeff Burton, Bobby Labonte and Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Incidentally, the same weekend the Dodge Charger swept the front row for the Dodge Charger 500, the production model begins shipping to showrooms all over the country. The Charger was the pace car of the Busch series at Darlington. (I think it will be tomorrow too!)

 

Considering the downforce the Chargers have, maybe they stand a good chance at Darlington if they can keep the tires under them.

 

This is a great opportunity for Dodge to get one this weekend