Waltrip takes Busch pole at Lowe's

CONCORD, N.C. -- Michael Waltrip led three other Winston Cup Series regulars in dominating Bud Pole qualifying for the Little Trees 300 at Lowe's Motor Speedway on Friday.

	Micahel Waltrip Credit: ASP

Waltrip, driver of the No. 99 Chevrolet, captured his second consecutive pole, the 13th of his Busch Series career. His lap of 180.343 mph (29.943 sec) broke Jeff Burton's event record of 179.485 mph (30.086 sec) set here last year.

In all, 11 drivers surpassed the fallen mark when the rain-delayed qualifying session ended.

"That was as good as we've been all day," said Waltrip, who was 13th in the pre-race practice. "We missed it a little bit in practice and that might have hurt our ability to run faster than we did. Nonetheless, the car handled a lot better after practice because we made some serious adjustments.

"Between my Busch and Winston Cup qualifying lately, I think you can see a noticeable difference. We've entered into an agreement with Dale Earnhardt Inc. for them to help us with our motors."

For Waltrip, this will be the third consecutive Busch race at Lowe's that he'll start in the front row. It's also his second career Busch Series pole here.

ALSO  •  Little Trees 300 Lineup  •  Race Facts  •  Waltrip's driver page

Starting next to Waltrip will be Burton in the No. 9 Ford with his lap of 180.337 mph. Burton won the Mr. Goodcents 300 two weeks ago at Kansas Speedway.

Behind them will be fellow Winston Cup Series regulars Jimmy Spencer and Joe Nemechek. Spencer was 16th on the practice chart and picked it up considerably for the qualifying effort.

"That wasn't bad at all for us," said Spencer, driver of the No. 1 Chevrolet. "In fact, it was pretty good. I had the car a little too snug because I thought the sun would come out and make the track a little freer than it was.

"The track was really in good shape. We felt like we haven't run as well as we should have on a lot of the 1.5-mile tracks. So, we went to Atlanta last week and a had a very good test."

Rounding out the top-10 starters will be Scott Riggs, Jack Sprague, Mark Green, Jeff Green, Larry Foyt and Kevin Lepage. Point leader Greg Biffle will start 25th with Jason Keller, second in points, outside of him in 26th.

Failing to make the race were Justin Labonte, Brad Baker, Jeff Fultz, Jason White, Carl Long, Chad Chaffin, John Hayden, Larry Gunselman and Brian Weber.