Catchfence

After a gloomy and frightening day at Nashville Superspeedway which included a wrath of strong storms and Tornadoes in the area, 48 NASCAR Nationwide Series teams and driver were finally able to tackle the 1.33-concrete track Friday evening preparing for Saturday’s Nationwide 300, round six on the 2009 schedule.

Despite an off weekend for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series aces, it was still a familiar double-duty driver at the helm Friday evening. Carl Edwards in the No. 60 Save-a-Lot Ford Fusion hoping to steer Roush-Fenway Racing to its 100th victory in the secondary series of NASCAR topped the charts after mounting a time of 29.497 seconds at 162.688 miles per hour.

Mike Bliss in the No. 1 Miccosukee Indian Gaming & Resort Chevrolet Monte Carlo SS for James Finch was second at 29.556 seconds or 162.363 miles per hour.

Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., the former USAC Racing and ARCA RE/MAX Series master paced third aiming to make his NASCAR Nationwide Series in the No. 16 CitiFinancial Ford Fusion for Roush-Fenway Racing.

SPEED television commentator and NASCAR Sprint Cup veteran Michael Waltrip was fourth followed by Joe Gibbs Racing protégé Joey Logano in the No. 20 Gamestop TOYOTA to round out the top-five.

Texas winner Kyle Busch was sixth followed by former Nashville Superspeedway winner Jason Leffler in seventh. Kelly Bires in a one-off deal as of now for Kevin Harvick Inc. delivered his No. 33 Charter Communications Chevrolet in eighth with local native and rising star Burney Lamar in the No. 32 Dollar General TOYOTA Camry clocked in ninth fastest with Brad Keselowski comprising the top-10.

Other notables in the top-20 included; David Ragan in the No. 6 Discount Tires Ford Fusion in 12th; Terry Cook in the unsponsored MSRP Motorsports entry in 13th.

ARCA RE/MAX Series winner Michael Annett raced his Germain Racing entry to the 14th fastest time in happy hour while 2008 ARCA RE/MAX Series champion Justin Allgaier maneuvered the 17th fastest run.

RAB Racing rookie driver John Wes Townley in the No. 09 Zaxby’s Ford negotiated 18th and former ARCA star Michael McDowell completed the top-20. Townley has experience at Nashville in both the ARCA RE/MAX Series and NASCAR Camping World Truck Series.

Stephen Leicht in his first race of the season for Richard Childress Racing in the No. 29 Holiday Inn / Holiday Inn Express Chevrolet Monte Carlo SS placed 21st.

Brian Scott set to make his inaugural NASCAR Nationwide Series debut for Braun Racing impressed with a solid 22nd. Scott will drive four races in the No. 10 TOYOTA Camry in addition to a full-time NASCAR Camping World Truck Series entry for Xpress Motorsports.

Casey Atwood in the No. 05 for Day Enterprises sliced in at 23rd.

Ken Butler III returned to the No. 23 R3 Motorsports entry with the Aaron’s Dream Machine colors and posted a respectable 26th fastest time.

Kenny Wallace in the Jay Robinson Racing, US Border Patrol machine is still enjoying a solid season and landed 28th in the No. 28 Chevrolet.

Last year’s winner Scott Wimmer continues to take the wheel for Key Motorsports and landed 30th in the No. 40 StopRepairbills.com entry.

Kertus Davis in a second Jay Robinson Racing carrying the GetMoreVacations.com signage was two places behind his teammate in 31st.

Jeff Green was in the No. 81 for MacDonald Motorsports at Nashville and collected the 33rd fastest run.

Former ARCA RE/MAX Series winner Tim Andrews driving for Rick Ware Racing ended the day 39th fastest overall in the No. 31 Zona Health Chevrolet.

Jeremy Clements, a former winner at Nashville Superspeedway in the ARCA RE/MAX Series aims for his first NNS start in 2009 netted 40th.

Drivers looking to make up speed in qualifying on Saturday include the 41st-48th place drivers who consist of Benny Gordon, Brandon Whitt, Morgan Shepherd, Eric McClure, Danny O’Quinn, Jr., Brad Teague, Mike Harmon and Ryan Hackett.

Harmon who is continuing a presence in the ARCA RE/MAX Series will bounce back from his 47th fastest lap with hopes to make second start of the year. Hackett is aiming to make his first NNS start of the season.

Of those drivers, Whitt, Shepherd, McClure and O’Quinn are locked in the field based on their position in the top-30 in the 2009 NASCAR Nationwide Series owner point standings.

Gordon, Teague, Harmon and Hackett join the group of drivers who need to qualify on-time in order to start the first of two races in the Music City this year. The other go-or-go-homers are: Terry Cook, John Wes Townley, Casey Atwood, Shelby Howard, Johnny Chapman, Brad Keselowski, Scott Wimmer, Kertus Davis, Jeff Green, Mark Green, Andy Poinstein, Dennis Setzer, Tim Andrews and Jeremy Clements.

Nashville Superspeedway marks the first stand-alone event of the season and the first of four races in Nationwide’s Dash-4-Cash which will award any full-time NASCAR Nationwide Series driver with an extra $25,000.00 bonus should they win the event.

On a side note, kudos to Baker Curb Racing and their driver Jason Keller. Should they triumph in the first round of the Dash-4-Cash, the team announced Friday that they will donate their bonus winnings to local American Red Cross in support of relief efforts for victims of Friday’s storms.

Qualifying is set for 10:05 a.m. local time Saturday. The Nationwide 300 is set to take the green flag shortly after 3:00 p.m. local time live on ESPN2, MRN Radio and Sirius / XM Satellite radio.