HOMESTEAD - David Reutimann is eager to get that "rookie" asterisk off his name on the driver's roster. With one race left in the NASCAR truck series, he seems equally as eager to get his first win.
The Zephyrhills native won the pole for today's Ford 200 at Homestead-Miami Speedway with a track record, then posted the fifth-best time in Thursday's final practice.
Reutimann is 15th in the points standings with two poles and three top-five finishes. His last pole came at Atlanta in the second race of the season. He finished third in that race, his best showing.
Reutimann's time of 31.532 seconds (171.255 mph) around the 1.5-mile oval on Thursday will put him in front, at least for a while, and away from the trouble that has plagued him this season. Running in the top 10 with two laps left last week at Darlington, Reutimann was caught in BHamilton Jr. 's accident and finished 28th.+
Matt Crafton took the outside pole with a career-best lap of 170.881.
Points-leader Bobby Hamilton Sr. qualified ninth (169.598) and Dennis Setzer , second to Hamilton by 70 points, is 23rd at (168.025).
Fourteen drivers broke the previous qualifying record (169.252) set by Hamilton last November.
NEW POWER: Petty Enterprises announced that it will use Evernham Motorsports engines beginning with testing for the 2005 Nextel Cup season.
The storied Petty team had struggled with horsepower from Mike Ege engines since 2002, and drivers Kyle Petty (33rd) and Jeff Green (29th) are languishing in the standings again this season.
In just its fourth year, Evernham Motorsports has has 13 poles, five race wins, 45 top-five finishes and 81 top 10s. Driver Jeremy Mayfield qualified for the Chase for the Championship, and Kasey Kahne is 12th and the presumptive rookie of the year.
"We have been working with Kyle and Petty Enterprises on behalf of Dodge the past four years, and they have a solid organization. The chassis are pretty much where they want them to be," Evernham said in a release.
"We feel we can help them on the horsepower side as well, and help them continue to build their program. We're all very excited at working even more closely with Petty Enterprises in 2005."
SPARK PLUGS: NASCAR CEO Brian France was featured in a piece in this week's U.S. News & World Report detailing the changing demographics of the stock car racing. ... Jack Roush will announce his 2005 truck series lineup today. Carl Edwards and Jon Wood compete for him this season. Roush held open tryouts in North Carolina recently.
