Elliott rolls to Bud Pole at New Hampshire

New England 300 Lineup

LOUDON, N.H. -- Bill Elliott won his third Bud Pole Award of the season Friday afternoon when he took the top starting spot for Sunday's New England 300 at New Hampshire International Speedway.

	Bill Elliott has qualified in the top 10 in seven of the past eight races.

Elliott took his 54th career pole with a lap of the 1.058-mile oval in 28.971 seconds, an average speed of 131.469 mph in the No. 9 Dodge Dealers/UAW Dodge.

"We ran a 29.25 in practice and felt like we needed to clip a few (tenths) off it," Elliott said. "Mike (Ford, crew chief) and the guys made a lot of changes on the car and it worked."

The effort was Elliott's seventh top-10 start in the last eight races and his 11th top-10 in 19 races. His previous poles came at Atlanta Motor Speedway and Texas Motor Speedway.

"I'm proud of the guys and all the work they put in, week in and week out," Elliott said. "We've come together well as a team the last couple months. The general morale is great (and) going into a long stretch like we're going into (20 straight races); morale is going to be the key."

Mike Skinner came out five cars after Elliott and continued a recent stretch of strong outings in the No. 4 Kodak Chevrolet by qualifying second with a lap in 29.036 seconds, 131.175 mph -- just .065 seconds off Elliott.

VIDEO CLIPS Elliott takes 54th career Winston Cup pole Play video

"You always want to win the pole and if you can't, you want to be second (but) when you miss one that close it kind of makes you mad a little bit," Skinner said. "Those guys did a good job tuning Old Yellow up. We've had some tough times and hopefully this is a sign it's going to end."

Elliott bumped NHIS qualifying record holder Rusty Wallace's No. 2 Miller Lite Ford off the provisional pole with the fifth change at the top of the list. Wallace was clocked at 131.121 mph and will line up third after trying to win his first pole since Phoenix at the end of the 2000 season.

"I didn't think I'd be able to run that quick -- the track was slowing down," Wallace said. "That was faster than I did in practice (because) from the center off it didn't spin a tire and I guess that's where I made up the speed. That was a good run."

Bobby Labonte, who went out last and jumped from outside the top-25 to fourth in the No. 18 MBNA Pontiac (130.999 mph) and Dave Blaney, who qualified in the top-seven for the second straight race after qualifying in the top-10 in only one previous race in the No. 77 Jasper Ford (130.905) rounded out the top-five starters.

	Mike Skinner qualified a season-high second. Credit: Autostock

"The first lap was a wreck and the second lap wasn't," Labonte said. "I just never got heat in the tires really good leaving pit road -- it was just too loose."

Matt Kenseth, Ryan Newman, Ricky Rudd and Ricky Craven in Fords and Bobby Hamilton in a Chevrolet qualified sixth-10th.

Dale Jarrett, the defending event winner, qualified 33rd in the No. 88 UPS Ford and Winston Cup point leader Sterling Marlin, who can win a $140,000 Winston Leader Bonus if he wins Sunday's race, qualified 18th in the Coors Light Dodge.

"Hometown favorite" Steve Park, who has five NHIS victories in two NASCAR divisions; Elliott Sadler; Casey Atwood; and Jeff Green were all involved in incidents in practice earlier Friday. Park and Sadler had to go to back-up cars.

Park cut a right front tire on the No. 1 Pennzoil Chevrolet on the frontstretch and hit the outside wall coming off Turn 2. He rebounded to qualify 22nd.

Sadler spun coming off Turn 4 on a mock qualifying run on sticker tires and broke suspension parts when he hit the wall with the left front of the No. 21 Motorcraft Ford. He took a provisional and will start 38th.

All 43 cars at the speedway made the starting lineup. Kyle Petty, Sadler, Hut Stricklin, Stacy Compton, Dennis Setzer, Kirk Shelmerdine and Morgan Shepherd took provisionals to line up 37th-43rd.

Geoffrey Bodine qualified brother Todd's Discover Ford 32nd while the younger Bodine qualifies his Busch Series car at Gateway International Raceway for Saturday night's race. Geoffrey will drive the No. 66 Taurus that is being piloted by Setzer in practice and qualifying, in Sunday's race.