Fri Jul 11 18:07:38 2008

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Reutimann wins Nationwide pole at Chicagoland

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Joliet, IL (Sports Network) - David Reutimann won the pole for Friday night's Dollar General 300 Nationwide Series race at the Chicagoland Speedway. The No.99 Michael Waltrip Racing driver rounded the 1.5-mile oval in 30.606 seconds (176.436 m.p.h.).

Reutimann recorded his second pole in 86 career Nationwide starts. His first pole came in November 2007 at Texas.

"I was really surprised it held on like it did," Reutimann said. "I didn't really know what to expect and went through (turns) one and two pretty good and figured we could make it through three and four, and it would be a pretty good lap. And it turned out good."

Tony Stewart, in the No.20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, will start second after qualifying at 30.666 seconds.

"I was overly impressed today with the car," Stewart said. "I don't know how many guys yesterday got a chance to do qualifying runs, and I was really impressed with what (crew chief) Dave Rogers was able to do."

Stewart will make his second to last Nationwide start in the JGR car at Chicagoland. His final race for the team will be in August at Michigan. He'll merge with Haas CNC Racing in 2009 to serve as both driver and owner of the newly-formed Stewart-Haas Racing.

The red-hot No.20 JGR team will try to score their fourth win in the last five Nationwide races.

Denny Hamlin held off his teammate Kyle Busch in the final laps to win one week ago at Daytona. Tony Stewart drove the car to victory at New Hampshire the week prior, and Joey Logano, in just his third start, won the June 14th race at Kentucky.

Logano, all of 18 years and 21 days at time of his victory, became the youngest driver to win a Nationwide race. He finished second to defending series champion Carl Edwards June 22nd at Milwaukee. Logano will not start at Chicagoland.

Gibbs' No.20 team has won nine of the first 19 races this season.

David Ragan (30.683) and Kevin Harvick (30.729) will start in row two.

Harvick won last year's 300-mile race at Chicagoland. Harvick hung around the top-10 for 173 laps before taking his first lead of the race. He then led the final 27 circuits and crossed the finish line 1.012 seconds ahead of Matt Kenseth. The victory was Harvick's third of the 2007 season.

Harvick is the only repeat winner in seven Nationwide races there. He won in 2005.

The race is scheduled to start around 8:00 p.m. (et).