Busch takes season's final Bud Pole Award

HOMESTEAD, Fla. -- - Kurt Busch won the Bud Pole Award at Homestead-Miami Speedway on Friday for the Ford 400.

	Kurt Busch captured his first Bud Pole Award of 2002 on Friday at Homestead. Credit: Autostock

Busch, driver of the No. 97 Rubbermaid Ford, bumped Dale Earnhardt Jr. off the pole with his lap of 154.365 mph (34.982 sec) for his first Bud Pole of the year and second of his career

"Our Fords have been pretty good when it comes to qualifying," said Busch, making his third top-10 start in the last four races. "We came here and tested a few weeks ago and did some tests that would benefit us for qualifying.

"Obviously, we are focused on what is going to happen on Sunday during the race. We're also focused where we are at in the points battle too.

"Sunday is going to be very important. But this is a great start to know we are headed in the right direction. It feels great. Now we're in the Budweiser Shootout."

Earnhardt Jr., driver of the No. 8 Budweiser Chevrolet, laid down a lap of 153.881 mph (35.092 sec) for the outside pole. He bested Jimmy Spencer, who will be driving his last race in the No. 41 Target Dodge this weekend. Spencer railed around the 1.5-mile oval at 152.862 mph (35.326 sec), marking his best start of the year.

"Man, Tony (Eury, crew chief) Sr. and all the guys did a great job here in practice and that's why the car runs so well," Earnhardt Jr. said. "It's the same car we ran last week in Phoenix.

"We felt so good about it last week that, hopefully, it will turn out well and we'll get us a win. The set ups are real similar and the car drives so well.

"I got a little loose in Turns 3 and 4 and that might have cost me a little bit."

Starting outside of Spencer will be Joe Nemechek, who signed this week to continue driving the No. 25 UAW-Delphi Chevrolet in 2003.

Greg Biffle, who will be moving to Winston Cup next year with Roush Racing, put the No. 44 Dodge of Petty Enterprises, qualified fifth.

Tony Stewart, on the verge of clinching his first Winston Cup Series championship, qualified sixth. Rounding out the top 10 starters will be Jeff Burton, Kenny Wallace, Ricky Rudd and defending race winner Bill Elliott.

Stewart leads Mark Martin by 89 points in the points battle. Martin didn't do himself any favors in the points chase by qualifying a disappointing 34th.

"That wasn't the prettiest lap out here today," Stewart said. "But we had a good lap. We've got a really good car. We're normally 'bad to the bone' on Sunday here.

"Our car is really, really good in race trim, so I'm pretty excited about Sunday now."

The same can't be said for Martin, who was the only Roush driver to qualify out of the top 15.

"It was terrible," a dejected Martin said. "We weren't prepared for the sun like this. We're not used to this (early) qualifying time, practice and everything and we missed it.

Jeff Gordon had the 37th-fastest speed in qualifying. For the first time in his 10-year Winston Cup Series career, he will have to take a provisional.

Also taking provisionals were Jeff Green, Robby Gordon, Johnny Benson, Mike Skinner, Todd Bodine and Derrike Cope. Failing to make the race were Hermie Sadler, Brett Bodine, Geoff Bodine, Tony Raines, Carl Long, Boris Said, David Green and Mike Harmon.