Auto Racing | Good runs for Travis Kvapil, DEI at Talladega

TALLADEGA, Ala. — A pair of once-mighty teams returned to the top of the Talladega Superspeedway leaderboard with very different things to prove.

Travis Kvapil won the NASCAR Sprint Cup Amp Energy 500 pole Saturday to show Yates Racing is on an upswing after several lean years, and Dale Earnhardt Inc. had a strong qualifying day to counter rumblings that the team is in trouble.

Kvapil turned a lap at 187.364 mph in his Yates Racing Ford to edge Casey Mears' lap of 187.295 in a Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet.

It was the first pole of Kvapil's career and came in his 100th start. And it was the eighth Talladega pole for a car owned by Yates, which was also the last Ford team to win at this track when Dale Jarrett grabbed a 2005 victory.

"This is a place that's really special to the Yates family, and my crew chief, Todd Parrott, loves coming here," said Kvapil. "It's awful special. There are a lot of [No.] 28 fans in the Talladega area, so it's pretty cool that we can come out here and get my first pole and give those 28 fans something to cheer about."

There are also a lot of Earnhardt fans in the area, and the loyal crowd has had little to cheer about since DEI reeled off six wins in seven races at Talladega from 2001 to 2004.

A slow slide began last year when Dale Earnhardt Jr. decided to move to Hendrick Motorsports, and the team took another hit this week when Paul Menard said he was moving with his sponsor to Yates Racing next season. It's created a steady stream of questions about the long-term stability of the team founded by the late Dale Earnhardt.

But DEI got a huge boost when all four of its cars qualified in the top 10 for today's race. Aric Almirola qualified third, Regan Smith was fourth, Menard was fifth and Martin Truex Jr. was 10th to give DEI something to celebrate.

"To also put three cars inside the top five, including a pair of rookie drivers with Aric and Regan, that really says a great deal about the future of our programs and where we are headed as a company," said DEI president Max Siegel.

Carl Edwards was the highest-qualifying Chase driver and will start 12th, while Dale Earnhardt Jr. was next at 15th in a backup car after a tire problem caused him to wreck in Friday's second practice.

The rest of the Chase field was: Jeff Burton (17th), points leader Jimmie Johnson (20), Greg Biffle of Vancouver, Wash., (22), Jeff Gordon (26), Matt Kenseth (32), Tony Stewart (35), Clint Bowyer (36), Kyle Busch (40) and Kevin Harvick (42). Enumclaw's Kasey Kahne qualified 38th.

Notes

• Todd Bodine took the lead on the last lap and held off Ron Hornaday Jr. and Kyle Busch in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Mountain Dew 500 at Talladega Superspeedway.

Bodine raced to his second victory of the season and won for the second straight year in the 250-mile race on NASCAR's largest track.

• A land deal involving Formula One driver Lewis Hamilton is under investigation on the Caribbean island of Grenada.

The deed for the property shows that the government transferred property worth $15 million to the British driver "free from encumbrances" in exchange for using his image and name for the next four years, apparently to promote tourism. The deal is controversial in part because Grenada's government owns nearly all beachfront land and leases it to developers for an annual fee.