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Johnny Sauter gets pole position for Trace Adkins 300

Being teammates with Kevin Harvick paid off for Johnny Sauter as he picked up the pole for the Trace Adkins "Chrome" 300 based on Busch Series owners' points after rain washed out qualifying.

Harvick is in Pocono this weekend for the Winston Cup, so Sauter is driving his Chevrolet as the second driver for Richard Childress Racing. The pole for the race Saturday night at Nashville Superspeedway is the second of Sauter's career and first since Talladega in April 2002.

"I think Kevin's done a little bit better job keeping it up in the points than I have, but I'll reap the benefit of it," Sauter said Friday. "Driving the 21 and the 43 [car] has been pretty educational for me, trying to apply things back and forth between the two teams."

Harvick has won two races this season as one of the Winston Cup regulars who have dominated the Busch Series, winning 11 of 14 events. Sauter is currently ninth in the points race, and his best finish this season came here in April as he led 22 laps and finished second to David Green.

Sauter will try to become just the second driver to win from the pole this season, following Joe Nemechek last week at Dover.

"Starting on the pole with track position is going to be a lot better for us," Sauter said.

Todd Bodine, the Busch Series points leader as a driver, will start second in his Chevrolet.

Bodine is the only Winston Cup regular driving here. He qualified 14th at Pocono and flew to Nashville, arriving just in time to hear that qualifying had been washed out. Bodine started at the back here in April when Mike McLaughlin filled in for him during qualifying and finished 13th.

McLaughlin was the fastest in practice Friday, but Bodine said he wanted to be behind the wheel if possible. He was due to fly back to New York on Friday night for practice at Pocono on Saturday, then return to Nashville for the Busch race.

Women in the pits

Shawna Robinson was a lap down when she left pit road for the first time during the night, but the problem wasn't caused by NASCAR's first all-female pit crew. It was a mistake by the driver.

Robinson jumped the start in the Craftsman Truck Series race at Texas Motor Speedway on Friday and had to come in for a stop-and-go penalty. She lost the lap while on pit road.

"I was just so fired up for doing well that I messed up and started too soon," Robinson said.

The seven-woman pit crew went over the wall three times, all during caution periods of the O'Reilly 400 to change two tires and add gas to the No. 49 Team Texas Chevrolet. While the stops weren't fast, they never cost Robinson position on the track.

"I really felt like I let these girls down. The only mistakes made out there were my fault," Robinson said. "But this is just a start for us. These girls were awesome."

Robinson finished 18th in the 36-truck field, five laps behind winner Brendan Gaughan, who won at Texas for the third straight time.

"Now we know we can do it, no question about it," said gasman Gail Stracener.

Once Robinson stopped the truck for service, after a caution on the 54th lap when she was already two laps down, the crew changed right-side tires and added gas. It took about 25 seconds before the truck left the box.

Robinson then made another mistake, getting penalized for exiting pit road too fast. She had to go to the end of the longest line for the restart, losing another lap but remaining in 19th place -- the same position as when she came in.

On the second stop after another caution on the 101st lap, they changed tires on the left side and added gas, coming out in the 18th spot. The stop lasted about 20 seconds.

About 20 laps later, they changed tires on the right side and added plenty of gas to finish the 167-lap race.
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