Jeff Gordon took the pole for Saturday Night’s Sharpie 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway by the wide margin of .001 seconds over Mark Martin this afternoon. It was the 3rd Bud Pole of the season for Gordon (2 shorties and a roadie), and the 45th of his career. Tho the difference between Gordon and Martin may look close, he really had another 1/1000th of a second to spare. For Mark Martin (2nd), this is his best starting spot since Lowe’s Motor Speedway last October….but in that one we lined up by points. In fact, Mark started on the outside pole three times last season….and every one of those was the result of a washout of qualifying. The last time he started this far up on time was when he was outside the front row at Atlanta in November of 2001 Michael Waltrip (3rd) has his best starting spot since he started 3rd here last August. Mike Skinner (4th) has his best starting spot since he lined up 3rd at Lowe’s Motor Speedway in May (only 5 races). Kurt Busch (5th….and needs to learn when to fold ’em) has his best starting spot since he started 5th at Infineon in May. Ted Musgrave (7th) has his best starting spot since he started on the outside pole at Martinsville in October of 1999 Ricky Rudd (8th) has his best starting spot since he started 5th in the Daytona 500. Kenny Wallace (11th) had his best qualifying effort since he started 9th at Martinsviile in April. Tony Raines (12th) had his career-best qualifying run today. His previous best was 17th at Dover in June of 2002. Ricky Craven (14th) has his best starting spot since he started 14th here in March. STREAKIN….Ryan Newman has 4 Top-10 starts in the last 5 races. 47 cars on hand…46 took a time. The Trouble Train of four consisted of: Hermie Sadler (for the 7th time this season), Billy Bigley, Derrike Cope (his 6th DNQ this year), and Morgan Shepherd (who did not make a qualifying attempt). Provisionals were taken by: Jeff Burton, Joe Nemechek (both of those were non-charged), Jeff Green, Todd Bodine (they’ve got one left till Martinsville), Casey Mears, Kyle Petty (in the same boat with Todd Bodine), and Christian Fittipaldi. Give some guys a provisional ….and they promptly use it. For Fittipaldi and the #43 team, they’re out again till we get to Martinsville in October.( Stock Car Fans Winston Cup Newsletter )(8-22-2003)
