R. Wallace dominates Saturday practices

ROCKINGHAM, N.C. - Rusty Wallace and Jamie McMurray ranked first and second, respectively, in both Nextel Cup Series practices Saturday at North Carolina Speedway.

Subway 400  Happy Hour Speeds  2nd Practice Speeds  1st Practice Speeds  Lineup

And they weren't just fast. They were consistent, too.

Wallace's 24.315-second lap in the morning session was the day's fastest, and he fell off just four-thousandths of a second from that pace in the second practice.

McMurray, meanwhile, circled the one-mile oval in 24.394 seconds in the morning, and fell just .015 second short of that mark in the second session. The second-year driver has been a model of consistency throughout the weekend, qualifying second and posting the second fastest time in both practices Saturday.

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McMurray is starting on the outside pole for the second consecutive time here.

Wallace qualified fourth for Sunday's Subway 400, his best starting position at Rockingham since earning the pole in the 2000 spring race. He made 74 laps in Happy Hour, the most by any driver during the weekend's final preparatory session.

Joining Wallace and McMurray in the top-five during Happy Hour were Kurt Busch, who improved from ninth in the morning to third in Happy Hour, pole sitter Ryan Newman and Scott Wimmer.

	Kurt Busch was second in this event in 2003. Credit: Autostock

Wimmer, who finished an impressive third in last week's Daytona 500, has picked up dramatically from Friday's 31st-place qualifying effort. He was 21st in the morning practice.

Likewise, Jimmie Johnson continues to improve the Lowe's Chevrolet after a mediocre qualifying effort Friday. Johnson qualified 29th, but improved to 12th-fastest in the morning practice before surging to sixth on the speed chart in Happy Hour.

Conversely, Daytona 500 winner Dale Earnhardt, Jr. fell off quite a bit from one practice to the next. He was third-fastest in the morning, but stumbled to 18th in Happy Hour.

Jeremy Mayfield, who qualified sixth Friday, improved to fifth in the morning practice before falling to 26th in Happy Hour.