Might wanna right this one down….it sure hasn’t happened very often. Matt Kenseth grabbed the Bud Pole today for tomorrow night’s Sharpie 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway by edging Jeff Gordon by a little over 1/100th of a second. His speed of 127.300 (15.073 sec) was good enough for only the second pole of his Cup career. The last time he started from the top-spot was at Dover in September of 2003 (qualifying was rained out and the race lined up by points), then he had the top-spot at Loudon in July of 2003 (the same scenario as at Dover), so this is his first Bud Pole by time since he led ’em to the green at Dover in June of 2002! He becomes the 15th different driver to capture a pole award this season.
Dave Blaney (3rd) has his best starting spot since he had the outside pole when we were here in April.
Ken Schrader (7th) has his best starting spot since he lined up 7th at Talladega in September of 2003.
Bobby Hamilton Jr (8th) had his best qualifying run since he grabbed the outside pole at Atlanta in March.
Mike Wallace (15th) has his best starting spot since he lined up 13th at Daytona in July of 2002!
Johnny Benson (21st) has his best starting spot since he qualified 21st at Homestead in November of 2003 (only 6 races).
Stanton Barrett (36th) has his best starting spot since he lined up 23rd when we were here in April (only 4 races).
STREAKIN….Ryan Newman has 7 Top-10 starts in a row.
Ricky Rudd has 4 Top-10 starts in the last 5 races. (Stock Car Fans)(8-26-2005)
