Fortune looked to shine on Dale Jarrett and the #44 UPS Team at Atlanta Motor Speedway (AMS) when the team experienced a good practice session in preparation for Friday night's qualifying session at the 1.5-mile track. An early qualifying draw and slight issue in turn three resulted in Jarrett using the champion's provisional to start Sunday's Kobalt Tools 500.
Jarrett and the UPS Team made progress in regard to the handling on the UPS Toyota during Friday's practice session in Atlanta. While the team ended the practice session in 45th position, it was an improvement in comparison to the lap times being run by the rest of the competition.
The UPS Team however, was the seventh team to qualifying during the Friday evening qualifying session. With Daylight Savings time in effect, the UPS Team was one of the 12 to 15 cars that had to qualify while sunshine still adorned much of the track surface. The slightly warmer track conditions combined with a slight issue on the qualifying lap resulted in Jarrett using his fourth consecutive provisional to make the race.
"The track has a ton of grip," Jarrett said after making his run. "The car just bottomed out on the second lap so that messed us up a little, so who knows where we would have been had it not been for that issue. But this is an improvement and we're a little more in the ball park this week than we were the last few weeks so at least that part is good. This has been a good track to me so I'm looking forward to seeing how we do in race trim tomorrow."
For the third consecutive week Jarrett's car owner and teammate Michael Waltrip did not make the starting lineup. Waltrip, who brushed the wall during practice, could only muster a lap time of 29.560 seconds and 187.551 mph.
It was a dramatically different story for Jarrett's rookie teammate, David Reutimann, who turned in a qualifying effort of 29.225 seconds and 189.701 mph to pick up the 24th starting spot. It was a tremendous effort for Reutimann who was one of the 11-plus teams that missed the race last week in Las Vegas.
For the 38th time in his career, Ryan Newman will start from the top spot after winning the Bud Pole Award for the Kobalt Tools 500 with his qualifying time of 28.707 seconds and 193.124 mph. Elliott Sadler will start alongside Newman, followed by Jimmie Johnson, Mark Martin and Jeff Gordon.
The Kobalt Tools 500 is scheduled to start this Sunday at 2 p.m. EDT. FOX will provide live television coverage of all the racing action beginning with the pre-race show that is scheduled for a 1:30 p.m. EDT start.
