Kurt Busch leads second-place Jeff Gordon by 96 points in the Nextel Cup Series standings. Credit: Autostock

Points leader not holding back despite slow lap

Kurt Busch will start 22nd in Sunday's race at Atlanta

HAMPTON, Ga. -- Three Roush Racing cars qualified in the top seven positions Friday night at Atlanta Motor Speedway for the Bass Pro Shops MBNA 500, but Nextel Cup Series point leader Kurt Busch's wasn't one of them.

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Pure coincidence, Busch said after the session concluded with his Sharpie Ford in the 22nd spot, .694 seconds behind pole winner Ryan Newman.

"For some reason the track is extremely loose for us and it has been since we got here," Busch said of his lap, which averaged 187.722 mph. "We've picked up every time we've been out on the racetrack (so) that just goes to show how far off we were to begin with."

It was Busch's fourth start worst than 20th in his past 14 races, and he is on a streak of 12 consecutive races in which he's finished in the top15.

Busch has finished no worse than sixth in the six previous Chase for the Nextel Cup races on his way to building a 96-point lead over second place Jeff Gordon; and 125 points ahead of third place Dale Earnhardt Jr.

"We've been somewhat off on the mile-and-a-half tracks this year in qualifying," Busch said. "We'll just have to go and race hard."

Busch has finished in the top six in each of the races in the Chase for the Nextel Cup. Credit: Autostock

In his last three races on 1.5-mile or similar two-mile tracks, Busch has finished fourth (Charlotte), sixth (Kansas), 11th (California) and sixth (Michigan).

"I hope this Ford has more front downforce than we think it does and that's what's making us so loose," Busch said. "We did have to re-touch every panel on this car after Charlotte because we know what episodes (wrecks) it went through there and right now it's unbelievably loose."

For their part, rookie Carl Edwards -- who qualified fourth, his best career starting position -- Greg Biffle in fifth and Mark Martin (seventh) exhibited a range of emotions despite their success.

Edwards said his day's focus was on making a good showing Sunday for first-time sponsor World Financial Group, an Atlanta company.

"I had a lot of grip (and) the racetrack had a lot of grip," Edwards said. "We did race practice for most of the day for most of the day because we just want to have a great race for World Financial Group.

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"(Atlanta) is like a great big dirt track -- you can run all over in different places. That's why guys like Tony Stewart and all those guys that grew up racing dirt race so good here."

Biffle wasn't quite as happy.

"That was a disgraceful qualifying effort by the driver, but it was an absolutely fantastic qualifying effort by the team giving me a car like that to drive," Biffle said. "I just overdrove (Turn) 1 by a little bit and left a lot on the table down there."

Meanwhile, Martin was disappointed.

"I may be getting too old for that," Martin said of his lap in 189.740 mph. "I'll still do it as long as I have to, though, but it's an awfully fast place to be that loose.

"It wasn't smart, but I got it done. The back end was really light through (Turns) 1 and 2, but the car was actually pretty awesome in 3 and 4 (so) we're pretty thrilled with that."

Martin enters Sunday's race fifth in the Chase, 224 points behind Busch.