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First Toyota Pole In NEXTEL Cup, Courtesy Of Dave Blaney

Backing up his topping of the practice charts, Dave Blaney turned the fastest lap in qualifying for Sunday?s Lenox Industrial Tools 300 at the New Hampshire International Speedway. Blaney’s second career pole was the first for Toyota in the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series.

The most consistent of the Toyota pilots, Blaney has qualified for fourteen of the sixteen NEXTEL Cup races this season. Still, the Bill Davis Caterpillar Toyota isn’t in the top 35 in owner’s points forcing the team into the “go or go home” qualifying situation.

“In my position, I need to qualify for the race,” Blaney explained. “I can’t make a mistake, in going for the pole, and take myself out of the race. My first lap was a little cautious, and it was good enough to get in the race. So, the second lap we ran a little harder and did pick up.”

Now with the first pole position out of the way, the Toyota teams will be gunning for the first win for the car maker.

“History making… it feels good’ laughed Blaney. ” Hopefully, it’s one step in a lot of successful days as far as poles and wins. I think we’ve been making some progress getting some speed out of the cars, all the Toyota teams have. The Toyota side is definitely making some ground like we all knew it would. We’ve had a very trying year, lots of trouble and lots of DNF’s and it’s been tough. This is a big confidence booster for the whole team.”

“I am proud that the Caterpillar team was the first one [to get a pole], and hopefully we can be the first one to win a race. We’ve been optimistic all along, we got the equipment to do it. It doesn’t surprise me that we won a pole, hopefully we can make a habit of it.

Blaney’s teammate, Jeremy Mayfield, qualified 30th fastest in the field. David Reutimann ran a quick lap, putting himself in the 17th position. Other Toyota teams did not have a good day as Michael Waltrip, Dale Jarrett, AJ Allmendinger did not qualify for the race. Brian Vickers was disqualified after failing inspection after qualifying.

Kurt Busch will start the race on the outside of the front row. Reed Sorenson, Johnny Sauter and Juan Pablo Montoya round out the top five starting the Lenox Industrial Tools 300.

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