Winning poles never gets old for Ryan Newman, NASCAR's Rocketman.

Still smarting from the indignity of being penalized 25 points after his fourth-place car was found to be an eighth of an inch too high after the race Sunday at Texas, Newman bounced back yesterday with his 43rd career pole.

The Daytona 500 winner will start the Subway Fresh Fit 500 tomorrow in Avondale, Ariz., from the front, a solid chance to get back to Victory Lane.

Newman, who drives for Penske Racing, has won at least one pole in each of his eight seasons in NASCAR and moved into a tie with NASCAR pioneer Buck Baker for 10th on the career qualifying list.

Asked if the thrill of winning poles has lessened over the years, Newman, whose previous pole came at Charlotte in October, shook his head and said, 'No. It's been a while for me.

"I was really happy. I was as happy after practice as I am now because it's been a while since, even in practice, we were P1 [position one]. "

Newman's fast lap on the mile Phoenix oval was 133.457 mph, just 0.045 faster than runner-up Elliott Sadler's 133.412.

NASCAR's stars are serious about fighting drug use in the sport -- even if it means regular, random testing.

In the wake of revelations this week by former Nationwide and Craftsman Truck Series driver Aaron Fike that he was addicted to painkillers and sometimes used heroin at the track on the same day he raced, the drivers quizzed about the situation yesterday at Phoenix International Raceway were dismayed.

"I cannot believe it," two-time reigning Sprint Cup champion Jimmie Johnson said. "It's absurd. I don't know what this means, where things go from here. [But] I'm so happy they figured out or found out what was going on and got him off the track. That is absolutely unacceptable."

NASCAR's substance abuse policy, based on "reasonable suspicion," allows the sanctioning organization to broadly administer tests anytime, anywhere. The sanctioning organization would not reveal how often those tests have been administered, but only a handful of drivers have been suspended from its various racing divisions for abusing its substance policy over the years.

Cup drivers are not represented by a union, like many other professional athletes, but most say they would like to see a program of random drug testing installed to alleviate any chance that people such as Fike, arrested while shooting up heroin July 7, 2007 in the parking lot of a Cincinnati, Ohio, amusement park, will be racing against them in the future.

Fike, eighth in the truck standings and racing for rookie of the year at the time, got a two-year probation and avoided jail by going to schools and tracks to deliver an anti-drug message. Since his arrest, he has raced in several sprint car races sanctioned by the U.S. Auto Club, which tests him before each race.