| |
By: John Clark
During the offseason
Jennerstown (Pa.) Speedway was repaved, and most thought
that it would make the 0.522-mile facility extremely
fast. Butch Miller proved the foreshadowing correct as
he shattered the track record of 18.597-seconds with a
fast lap of 18.493-seconds on the way to winning the
Jani-King pole award for tonight’s ASA Racing
Jennerstown 250.
“That was a pretty good lap considering I drove really
stupid today,” Miller said. “I think for once we got
lucky. You figure drawing number one qualifier is bad; I
think today it was an advantage.”
This was the 51st Jani-King pole in Miller’s career,
adding to the total he has atop the all-time list.
The second fastest time was recorded by Robbie Pyle in
the No. 63 Citgo Chevrolet with a lap of 18.608-seconds,
slower than Miller by 0.115-seconds. His WalTom
teammate, Stephen Leicht, will start third, followed by
Kevin Cywinski and Casey Smith.
Miller was the first car on the track in qualifying and
he broke the record on his first lap which recorded a
speed of 101.617 mph. The old record had held since May
17, 1997 when Gary St. Amant posted the time.
In tandem with the quick new track surface, the weather
was cool and mostly overcast, further enhancing
conditions for optimum speed. The sun started to pop
through the clouds as the session was run heating it up,
giving Miller the added benefit of qualifying first.
“They have done a great job paving here,” Miller said.
“He (Dave Wheeler, track owner) did his homework and did
a lot of studying. From what I understand, this is like
the same type of asphalt they put on Indianapolis Motor
Speedway. These BFGoodrich Tires have so much traction
that on a new surface they tend to pick the asphalt
right out of it. Well that won’t happen with this
surface.”
|
