Burton on the Pole, Kahne 4th/ Busch Notes/ Crawford Wins, Bliss 6th at ORP/ Live Coverage from Terre Haute at 3pm

Burton on the Pole, Kahne 4th

Kasey Kahne has a good starting position to take care of some unfinished business. The Open Wheeler will start 4^th in the Brickyard 400, a race he could have won had it not have been for Tony Stewart’s strong run last year. JJ Yeley will start 6^th and Indiana native Ryan Newman will roll off 8^th. Indy 500 veteran Robby Gordon will start 8^th and Ken Schrader will start 11^th.

Open Wheeler Cup Qualifying Indy

1. (31 Jeff Burton)

4. 9 Kasey Kahne

6. 18 J.J. Yeley

8. 12 Ryan Newman

9. 7 Robby Gordon

11. 21 Ken Schrader

16. 24 Jeff Gordon

22. 99 Carl Edwards

32. 20 Tony Stewart

39. 42 Casey Mears

42. 22 Dave Blaney

43. 60 Boris Said

NASCAR.com reported today that Dave Blaney will be back with Bill Davis Racing for the 2007 season.

Jason Leffler was the fastest Open Wheeler in the first Busch Series practice today at ORP coming in fifth quick. Several Cup Series drivers missed the first practice because of qualifying over at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Busch Series Practice ORP
5. 38 Jason Leffler

12. 11 Paul Menard/ Matt Crafton

13. 60 Carl Edwards/ David Ragan

20. 18 J.J. Yeley/ Casey Attwood

25. 77 Burney Lamar

26. 10 John Andretti

34. 98 Erin Crocker

38. 43 PJ Jones

Crawford Wins, Bliss 6^th at ORP

The short track at O’Reilly Raceway Park has been good to Open Wheelers over the years but for the most part, when they transition to the heavier Truck and Busch Series cars trouble always comes. The first trouble of the evening came on lap 25 when David Ragan put a fender to Erin Crocker. Crocker bounced off the wall bringing out the first caution of the night. She had minimal damage from the accident and was able to get the free pass and get back on the lead lap. On lap 79 the yellow flag waved again for Cameron Dodson who was making his first start in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series when he spun on the front stretch. The field made pit stops on lap 127 but Mike Bliss elected to stay out to lead. Later in the race on lap 181 Terry Cook took sixth from Todd Bodine while his brother in law, rookie Bobby East took eleventh from Matt Crafton.

“Our Silverado was really fast there in the middle of the race,” said Mike Bliss. “I think we drove up to fifth place. Then there was a yellow and everyone else came in and got tires. We kind of knew that was going to happen and it wasn't going to be good. I didn't think we could hold them off, but fifth, that isn't too bad.”

“We had a good run,” said Bobby East. “We had fun racing the 99, me and Kraig Kinser in the 46. We raced all 200 laps together. We were by each other the whole race and that was fun. I just had a blast tonight. I'm real proud of everybody. This is what we needed after a rough month-and-a-half, two months. Everybody is doing the right thing, we just haven't had stuff go our way. I would have liked to have run better. It's my hometown and got some friends in the stands but we'll take it.”

“We (East and the Erik Darnell) fought definitely the whole race,” said Kraig Kinser. “We raced each other pretty hard at the beginning and then we got settled in trying to follow each other for a while and then we raced each other there at the end. Bobby has had a lot of laps around here so he could get people where I couldn't and get them a lot easier. I tried racing him where I could. It was a real good night.”

For more coverage of the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, please visit our friends over at www.truckseries.com.

ORP Open Wheeler Truck Results

1. (14. Rick Crawford)

5. 16 Mike Bliss

6. 10 Terry Cook

11. 21 Bobby East

13. 46 Kraig Kinser

24. 25 Boston Reid

27. 98 Erin Crocker

29. 63 Cameron Dodson

Live Coverage from Terre Haute at 3pm

We are enroute to the Terre Haute Action Track for tonight’s USAC Silver Crown Series race. We plan on beginning our updates at 3pm today so please join us here later today.