For the Record, Mears Gets Pole

Casey Mears followed the path set by uncle Rick Mears, winning the pole position Saturday for today’s NASCAR Nextel Cup Series Brickyard 400.

He took full advantage of an early draw in the qualifying order to post a fast lap of 186.293 mph. That broke the Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s stock car qualifying record of 184.343, set last year by Kevin Harvick.

“It feels great to be back here at Indy and holding up the Mears name proud,” Casey said after driving his No. 41 Dodge to the second pole of his career and second in as many weeks. “Hopefully, I will have a good race.... It would just mean everything in the world.”

Rick Mears won six poles and four races in the Indy 500.

“I’ve watched my uncle in the Indy 500 and even my dad [Roger] race here in the early ‘80s,” said Mears, a second-year driver for Chip Ganassi.

The top six qualifiers were all faster than Harvick’s lap. Ward Burton was second at 185.391 in a Chevrolet, followed by Elliott Sadler at 185.162, Joe Nemechek at 184.976, Dale Earnhardt Jr. at 184.968 and rookie Brian Vickers at 184.665.

Earnhardt, still recovering from burns in the crash of a sports car on July 18 at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, was the first of 50 drivers to make qualifying attempts.

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Kyle Busch passed up a final pit stop for tires, then held off Johnny Sauter in the closing laps to win the NASCAR Busch Series Kroger 200 at Indianapolis Raceway Park.

Sauter, who also finished second in the Craftsman Trucks race Friday night, started from the pole in a Chevrolet, but lost the lead when he pitted after 131 of the 200 laps.

He dropped back to 14th but steadily worked his way back toward the front. Then when Greg Biffle and David Green took their final pit stops, Busch stayed on the track in his Chevrolet and inherited the lead he kept for the final 44 laps.

Busch, winning his fourth race of the season to remain in second place in the series points, beat Sauter by 0.896 seconds.

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Sebastien Bourdais posted a top speed of 141.420 mph in a Ford-Cosworth, earning his fourth Champ Car World Series pole of the season and bumping Ryan Hunter-Reay into the second spot for today’s Grand Prix of Road America race at Elkhart Lake, Wis. Hunter-Reay took it easy after qualifying for the front row with a provisional time of 140.246 mph on Friday.

Jimmy Vasser, the oldest driver on the Champ Car circuit at 38, earned his first top-three start since winning the pole at Long Beach in 2002 with a time of 140.972 mph one day after his provisional time was disqualified because his Ford-Cosworth was two pounds underweight.

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Greg Pursley earned his 10th victory of the season by holding off James and Tony Bruncati to win the 75-lap Lucas Oil Super Late Model series feature at Irwindale Speedway.

Pursley had set the track record for the premier racing class at the track, qualifying his Monte Carlo in 17.817, taking 0.032 seconds off the mark he set in June.

In the 50-lap NAPA Auto Parts Super Trucks series feature, a pass by Pat Mintey Jr. with four laps left allowed him to overtake Billy Helgeson to earn his fourth victory of the season.

In the 35-lap King Taco Legends Cars series feature, Kenton Gray had earned his first victory of the season by beating Tom Landreth and Austin Grabowski, but a post-race tech inspection nullified the victory.

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Billy Hamill of Monrovia dropped out of the FIM Speedway Grand Prix World Championship two seasons ago because he lacked sufficient funding, not because he lacked talent. The only championship that matters, he says, is the U.S. National.

Hamill took a step toward winning his fifth title by forcing a pass inside four-time champion Greg Hancock on the first lap and winning the four-lap A Main at the San Bernardino County Fairgrounds in Victorville.

Billy Janniro also passed Hancock, who started on the pole, and Mike Faria finished fourth. Hancock and Hamill are tied after two of three rounds with 37 points.

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Times staff writer Martin Henderson and correspondent Tony Solorzano contributed to this report.