Greg Biffle grabbed his first career-pole Sunday, and he’ll lead ’em to the green as the first-ever Roush pole winner at Daytona. It was also the first pole for a Roush Ford since Kurt Busch grabbed the top-spot at Homestead in November of 2002.
For Biffle, this is his best starting spot since he had the outside pole at Richmond last September. He was also outside the front-row at Watkins Glen last August.
Elliott Sadler (2nd) has his best starting spot since he had the pole at Talladega last October.
Sterling Marlin (4th) has his best starting spot since he lined up 4th at Talladega last October.
Tony Stewart (5th) has his best starting spot since he qualified 4th at Watkins Glen last August.
Mark Martin (8th….and seemingly very confident) has his best starting spot since he lined up 3rd at Richmond last September.
Michael Waltrip (9th) has his best starting spot since he started 5th at Loudon last September.
Matt Kenseth (12th) has his best starting spot since started up front at Dover last September….but that race was lined up on points. On time, this is his best qualifying effort since he started 6th at Darlington last September.
Scott Wimmer (26th) has his best starting spot since he qualified 19th at Phoenix in November of 2002 (only 9 races).
STREAKIN….Jimmie Johnson has 4 Top-10 starts in the last 5 races.
The Butterfly Brigade: We’ve got three drivers making their first career Nextel Cup starts on Sunday. Brendan Gaughan, Kasey Kahne, and Scott Riggs all get to break in easy….with the biggest race of the season! They join Johnny Sauter, Scott Wimmer, and Brian Vickers in what promises to be an extremely entertaining Rookie of the Year contest. As usual, we’ll follow it all year long in our Rumblings.
The Trouble Train was very short this week….and this is a category that we expect may be empty more than once this season (if some of the reports flying around are accurate). Only two cars got the early out this race. Neither Kirk Shelmerdine nor Andy Hillenburg were able to race their way into the 500.
We’ve got an hour and a half of pre-race on Sunday (I’m willing to endorse it for the kiddies….Lee Greenwood won’t let us down) then three hours of sitting on the edge of your seat and holding your breath. Throw in a rather dicey tire situation, and there’s not gonna be a whole lot of comfortable drivers out there. That makes that #8 car look even tougher.(StockCarFans.Com Nextel Cup Newsletter)(2-13-2004)