Tough qualifying day for most title contenders

DOVER, Del. -- With the Winston Cup championship points chase so tight and only nine races to go, qualifying is now paramount.

	Rusty Wallace won his first Bud Pole of the year. Credit: Autostock

The Bud Pole qualifying results for Sunday's MBNA All-American Heroes 400 at Dover International Speedway ultimately may play a significant role in the title hunt. Four of the top six points contenders qualified out of the top 20 spots.

Rusty Wallace, who is sixth in points trailing leader Mark Martin by 146 markers, captured the top starting spot. Martin will start 32nd.

Wallace is coming off a 65-race stretch with no poles, and the veteran is winless this year. A Bud Pole Award could indicate a turn in the right direction.

"Finally. It's been forever," Wallace said. "It's been a year, seems like, since I won a pole. We had a good car today.

"Goodyear brought a great tire. We're back on the pole here at Dover, feels good. Right off the truck, the car was a real good car. This is the car we built especially for Bristol."

Martin, on the other hand, wasn't pleased with the 32nd-place qualifying effort he and the No. 6 Viagra Ford team put forth.

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"That was a big disappointment," Martin said. "We had a lot better car than that."

Sterling Marlin stands just six points behind Martin after losing the points lead last week. He'll start the No. 40 Coors Light Dodge in 26th.

"The guys on the Coors Light Dodge team kept working on it and got it better," Marlin said. "It was terrible when practice started, but we saw in practice that the car never slowed down. We've got a good setup for the race."

Jimmie Johnson, who won the spring race here, now stands 40 points out of the lead and will start 19th on Sunday.

His owner and teammate Jeff Gordon is fifth in points, trailing Martin by 67 points. He'll line up behind his prot?g? in the 24th position.

Tony Stewart, known for his prowess in the second half of the season, is fourth in points. Just 59 points out of first, he and the No. 20 Home Depot Pontiac team will start 23rd.

Even though it wasn't a banner effort, Stewart was pleased with the end results.

"I felt like if we qualified in the mid-20's I'd be happy and that's how it turned out," Stewart said. "That's when we seem to race the best from here."