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SPORTS

Stewart on pole after rain washes out qualifying

Saturday, August 1, 2009
(Updated 6:52 am)

LONG POND, Pa. -- Tony Stewart won at Pocono Raceway this season from the rear of the field. He gets to try it this time from the pole.

Rain washed out Sprint Cup qualifying on Friday, putting Stewart on the pole and giving the points leader a shot at sweeping the races on the triangle track from worst and first.

"You don't have to be on the pole to win here," Stewart said. "It's obviously a lot easier if you can start up front and don't have to pass 42 cars to get there. It's not a deal-breaker if you have to start 43rd. We proved that last time."

Qualifying for the June's race at Pocono also was rained out and Stewart was awarded the pole. He wrecked the next day in practice, forcing him to the back of the field. Stewart responded with his first Cup points race victory as owner/driver.

NASCAR set the field on points Friday, allowing last week's winner Jimmie Johnson to start second. Jeff Gordon, Kurt Busch and Carl Edwards round out the top five.

Only 43 teams are at the track, so every car qualifies for Sunday's race.

Stewart holds a 192-point lead in the standings over Johnson.

GOING GREEN: Pocono Raceway is adding a green solar energy project to go with the green flag.

The track unveiled plans for a three-megawatt solar farm which will power all its energy needs and support the local energy grid. It's the largest renewable energy project in the world for a sports facility.

"We won't have an electric bill," Pocono Raceway president Brandon Igdalsky said.

The $17 million project will see nearly 40,000 photovoltaic modules, or, solar panels, spread over approximately 25 acres of land formerly used as parking lots. The project is set to be completed by the spring of 2010.

Igdalsky said the project will not only satisfy Pocono Raceway's energy needs, it can also power nearly 1,000 homes and lower carbon dioxide emissions by 5,100 tons every year. Pocono officials started looking into the switch nearly three years ago because of soaring electric bills. Deregulation only threatened steeper increases over the years.

Owner Joseph Mattioli said the track can farm out the remaining megawatts of energy off whatever is left after they power the track.

"It's a money-making thing, also," Mattioli.

Mattioli and his grandson, Igdalsky, were among the participants of a rainy groundbreaking ceremony on Friday. Igdalsky said the track did apply for a $1 million state grant. Pocono will be the only sports facility in the world to generate clean renewable energy on site, offsetting its annual electricity consumption.

Pocono Raceway is working with enXco and Evolution Energies to complete the project.

MOVING FORWARD: Juan Pablo Montoya insists he's moved on.

That doesn't mean, however, that he agrees with his speeding penalty that curtailed his run toward his first NASCAR win at Indianapolis Motor Speedway last weekend.

"We checked ourselves after the race and it seemed OK and everything seemed to be in the right place," said Montoya, who ended up finishing 11th. "For some reason they said we were speeding and that's what it is.

"I've moved on and that's it. Things like that whether you're right or wrong, today we can't change it. I can't."

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