Kurt Busch won the pole for the Subway
500 at Martinsville Speedway on Friday, his Nextel Cup Series-high
sixth pole position of the season.
Busch circled the tight 0.526-mile oval at 97.568 m.p.h., giving
Dodge its 15th pole of the season in the 31 races where qualifying
was held. He knocked Jeff Gordon to the outside of the front row
after Gordon set the early standard at 97.377 m.p.h.
Busch said he was simply carrying on the tradition of short track
specialist Rusty Wallace, who yielded the No. 2 car to Busch when he
retired following last season.
``It was a great lap, unexpected for me, but this team has always
qualified well at this track,'' Busch said. ``Martinsville is the
kind of track that you either love or hate, and I've learned to do
both. It's a tough, challenging short track.''
Gordon, who has sat on the pole five times at Martinsville,
earned his 19th top-10 starting spot in 28 races on the shortest,
tightest and oldest track in the series.
The top five also has rookie Denny Hamlin, Ryan Newman and Tony
Stewart.
The top 10 will feature four of the 10 Chase for the championship
drivers, with Gordon, Hamlin, Dale Earnhardt Jr. starting seventh
and Jimmie Johnson ninth.
Jeff Burton, a Virginia native and the points leader with five
races remaining in the season, qualified 28th. Kasey Kahne was last
among the 10 chase drivers, qualifying 32nd.
Burton's brother, Ward, will start 35th. The former Daytona 500
winner has been out of racing since November 2004, but is driving
for Morgan-McClure Racing this week.
``This car's got it in it. We just have to figure out how to get
it out of it,'' Burton said of the speed in his Chevrolet.
The Burton brothers grew up about 60 miles from the track in
South Boston.
