ROCKINGHAM, N.C. - Ryan Newman put himself in a familiar spot Friday - on the pole.
Newman, who led NASCAR's elite series with 11 poles last season, earned the top starting spot at North Carolina Speedway with a lap of 156.475 mph. He has consecutive poles at the 1.017-mile track.
"It's been a long drought," he said sarcastically. "It feels good to be back."
Newman, in his third season, has proven to be a master of qualifying. In 82 career starts, he has 19 poles, three at the track known as the Rock.
By taking the top spot for the Subway 400 on Sunday, he made up for a poor qualifying effort in the season-opening Daytona 500 last weekend that had crew chief Matt Borland wondering what happened.
"I was teasing Borland last week, and I said maybe if we just drove the car backward it would go faster," Newman said. "We didn't qualify well, so we looked forward to coming back here."
Jamie McMurray qualified second in a Dodge with a lap of 155.379 mph and rookie Kasey Kahne was third in an Intrepid.
Rusty Wallace, Newman's teammate at Penske Racing South, qualified fourth and said he felt good about his chances on Sunday after testing here.
"I felt like it was necessary we did that, and now it's paying off," said Wallace, winless in the past 99 races. "I think I'm going to win on Sunday, I really do. We ran great and we've got a great car."
Jeff Gordon was the first non-Dodge driver, qualifying fifth in a Chevrolet.
NASCAR nearly missed a full field of 43 for the Nextel Cup race. The race drew 45 entries but Andy Belmont wrecked with Morgan Shepherd in practice and didn't have a backup car. Shepherd's car also was damaged, preventing him from practicing. NASCAR won't let a driver attempt to make the race without running at least one lap in practice.
So only 43 cars made qualifying attempts and the back of the grid was rounded out with a bevy of field-fillers: Carl Long, Andy Hillenburg, Kirk Shelmerdine and Joe Ruttman.
But Newman said he wasn't worried because NASCAR will pull dangerous cars off the track.
"They have to meet NASCAR's speed number," he said. "Whether it's an injured car on Lap 398 or a slow car on Lap 2, it doesn't really matter."
BUSCH SERIES: Johnny Benson won the first pole of his Busch career, putting his Dodge on the front row at Rockingham. Benson ran a lap at 153.169 mph in qualifying for today's Goody's Headache Power 200. Benson, the 1995 Busch series champion, is back in the division after losing his Nextel Cup ride last season.
CHAMP CAR: The RuSport team, with driver A.J. Allmendinger, announced it will run in the series. Allmendinger, 21, considered one of the top American open-wheel prospects in recent years, won the Toyota Atlantic series title last year and the Barber Dodge Pro Series championship in 2002.
NHRA: Rain postponed first-round qualifying at the Winternationals in Pomona, Calif.
