Waltrip on Busch Series Bud Pole at Kansas

KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) -- Michael Waltrip won his second straight Busch series pole at 3-year-old Kansas Speedway with a record-setting qualifying run Friday.

Fresh off a victory in his Winston Cup car last Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway, Waltrip turned in a fast lap of 178.365 mph in his Chevrolet in qualifying for Saturday's Mr. Goodcents 300.

Mr. Goodcents 300  Lineup  1st Practice Speeds  Preview

He and 23 other drivers broke his year-old qualifying mark of 173.831 mph on the 11/2-mile oval. It was his second pole of the season in NASCAR's second-tier series.

"I don't really know how that happened," said Waltrip, who has 10 career Busch series wins. "Usually, when you let a track sit a year it should take speed out, not put it back in.

"Our 2003 cars are better than the 2002s, so that probably makes a bunch of difference."

Seeking his second Busch victory this year, Waltrip will start inside Kasey Kahne. He took the outside of the front row with a lap of 177.743 in his Ford.

2003 Busch Series  Drivers  Crew Chiefs  Schedule  Driver Standings  Manufacturer Standings  Rookie Standings  Race Review  Best 25: Last 6 races  2003 Best Starts  2003 Best Finishes

David Green qualified third, with Mike Bliss on the outside of the second row. They were followed by Stacy Compton, Casey Mears, Tony Raines, Scott Riggs, Ron Hornaday Jr. and Joe Nemechek.

Raines qualified in a backup car after his first primary blew an oil pump and hit the wall.

"It wouldn't turn and, it wouldn't slow down, and it hit the wall pretty hard," Raines said. "Other than that, it was pretty uneventful."

Points leader Brian Vickers, who has won two of the last three Busch races, will start 17th.

Waltrip, also driving in Sunday's Winston Cup event -- the Banquet 400 -- has not won a Busch race from the pole since 1990.

He had a hard-luck weekend here last year, starting both races at or near the front but finishing neither.

He was running third in the Busch race when he cut a tire, crashed on the 156th lap and finished 33rd. He qualified fourth for the Winston Cup event, but blew a tire and crashed on the 20th lap, finishing 26th.

"If you're going to race, you're going to wreck," Waltrip said. "That doesn't have anything to do with how we were performing, or how we're going to do tomorrow. We've put all that behind us."