fourth, and Kenseth fifth. Hamlin, Rudd, Dave Blaney, Bobby Labonte and Stremme rounded out the top ten qualifiers. Jeff Green crashed in the second turn while on a lap and used a provisional to qualify. The six drivers who failed to qualify were Kevin Lepage, David Reutimann (who crashed on his lap) Waltrip (who lost control of his car in the second turn on his second qualifying lap, tearing off a front tire after hitting an inside wall and made contact with it a second time before stopping), Mike Bliss, Paul Menard and Ward Burton. After the qualifier, Newman said he felt pressure to achieve Penske's Racing South's first victory at Charlotte Motor Speedway: "He's only been trying here for like 20 years, so yeah it would be special. It's been something that weighs on the drivers and the teams". He also said he felt he could have recorded a faster lap time and was worried about teammate Kurt Busch's qualifying form. On Saturday afternoon in sunny and warm weather conditions, Newman was fastest in the second practice session with a time of 30.562 seconds, ahead of Sadler, Kurt Busch, Mark Martin, Greg Biffle, Earnhardt, Edwards, Rudd, McMurray and Kahne. During the session, teams were scuffing their tires; in the first minute, Bowyer crashed after he spun in turn two and switched to a back-up car in which he set five more lap times. Shortly afterward, Nemechek spun after exiting the second turn but avoided damaging his car. Later that day, Edwards led the final practice session with a time of 30.043 seconds; Biffle, Newman, Sadler, J. J. Yeley, Truex. Kurt Busch, Jeff Gordon, Kenseth, and Jeff Burton were in positions two through ten. Kyle Busch damaged his right-rear quarter after hitting a right-hand wall, but did not switch to a back-up car. Qualifying results Race Laps 1–112 Live television coverage of the race began at 5:00p.m. EDT in the United States on Fox. Commentary was provided by Mike Joy, Darrell Waltrip, and Larry McReynolds. Around the start of the race, weather conditions were partly cloudy with an air temperature between and a track temperature which ranged between . William K. Thierfelder, president of Belmont Abbey College in Belmont, North Carolina, began pre-race ceremonies with an invocation. Country and pop music singer LeAnn Rimes performed the national anthem, and sponsored contest award winners commanded the drivers to start their engines.