#20-Tony Stewart won the Budweiser Pole for the Pepsi 400 at Daytona International Speedway with a speed of 185.582mph for his first pole since Chicago in July 2003 and his 8th of his career. The rest of the top-five were #10-Scott Riggs, #48-Jimmie Johnson, #36-Boris Said [best of the non top-35 drivers] and #01-Joe Nemechek. That puts all three MB2/MBV/MBSutton Motorsports drivers in the top five. Chevy has 8 of the top 10 starting spots, Ford’s best is #38-Elliott Sadler starting 6th and the best starting Dodge is #2-Rusty Wallace at 9th. Points leader #16-Greg Biffle will start 18th and is the best starting Roush Racing driver. #8-Dale Earnhardt Jr. was slow and will start 39th [the worse spot a winner has won from at Daytona is 38th by Bill Elliott in July 1988. The winner of the last two Daytona race, #24-Jeff Gordon will start 15th. Missing the race were #66-Mike Garvey and #00-Kenny Wallace. #73-Dan Pardus and #89-Morgan Shepherd both withdrew from the race before practice.
For qualifying results, pole progression, starting lineup and links on my Jayski’s Daytona Qualifying/Practice/Starting Grid Page.(7-1-2005)
