Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s free-agent price tag just might be rising as fast as his qualifying speeds.

With his crew chief suspended and contract negotiations for next season still ongoing, nothing seemingly has served as a distraction of late on the track for the surging Earnhardt.

Earnhardt almost had a pole to celebrate until he was bumped off late yesterday by Ryan Newman for the top spot for the race at Dover International Speedway in Delaware. Newman followed a front-row start a week ago with his second consecutive pole and 40th overall with a lap at 152.925 mph.

Earnhardt was second at 152.387 and Bobby Labonte third in 152.304 for tomorrow's race on the mile concrete track.

"Second was close and we can have a sense of pride in that accomplishment," Earnhardt said.

Although he was denied his first pole in 164 races, racing these days comes a whole lot easier for Junior than talking about where he might end up after this season. Decision day is looming for the wildly popular NASCAR driver, who says three or four teams are still in serious contention to land the free agent once he ends his run at Dale Earnhardt Inc.

"I can tell you that things are positive," Earnhardt said. "I've just been overwhelmed with the personalities I met."

Earnhardt's 13th in the season standings, only 13 points behind Jamie McMurray for the 12th and final spot in the Chase for the Nextel Cup championship. Earnhardt finished eighth in each of the past two races and added what was a season-high fourth-place start last week in the Coca-Cola 600.

And he was just edged out of the pole yesterday, even without crew chief Tony Eury Jr. Eury is sitting out the second race of a six-race suspension after NASCAR discovered illegal brackets on the rear wing of the No. 8 Chevrolet at Darlington Raceway.

Earnhardt was docked 100 points and Eury was fined $100,000.

Hey, with runs like these, Junior won't have to worry too much about Eury rushing back.

This process of scouting out new teams has been exciting for Earnhardt, still without a pole since a Sept. 29, 2002, race at Kansas, who never had a chance to see up close how some of NASCAR's heavyweight teams operate.

"I didn't see any golden eggs laying around," Earnhardt said.

But he did like some of the areas where the other teams are branching out and growing, thanks to some of the financial resources not necessarily available at DEI. Still, Earnhardt believes he can win again this year -- he's won at Dover before -- and that his departure had little to do with his confidence in his team.

Kasey Kahne and Carl Edwards rounded out the top five in qualifying, and points leader Jeff Gordon was sixth.

Michael Waltrip qualified for a race for the first time since the Daytona 500, starting 23rd in his No. 55 Toyota.

Formula One

Valencia, Spain, will stage the European Grand Prix starting next year after Formula One officials signed a seven-year contract with event organizers. The agreement to bring a second F1 race to Spain after the Spanish GP in Barcelona was announced May 10. The Valencia race, previously held in Nuerburgring, Germany, is likely to be run in August.

Trucks

Ron Hornaday Jr. dominated at the end and drove his No. 33 Chevrolet to an easy victory in the Craftsman Truck Series race last night at Dover International Speedway in Delaware, his second win in the past three races. Hornaday beat Stacy Compton by 7.009 seconds. Travis Kvapil was third, and Johnny Benson and Mike Bliss rounded out the top five.