All News Boris Said David Gilliland Greg Biffle Jamie McMurray Jeff Gordon Kasey Kahne Kevin Harvick Kurt Busch P.J. Jones Ron Fellows Ryan Newman Tom Hubert

Sonoma Qualifying Notes:

June 23, 2006 at 12:00 AM

• Kurt Busch won the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series Bud Pole for the Dodge/SaveMart 350, lapping Infineon Raceway in 76.987 seconds at 93.055 mph. Jeff Gordon holds the track qualifying record of 75.950 seconds, 94.325 mph – set June 24, 2005.
• This is Kurt Busch’s fifth career Bud Pole in 200 NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series races.
• This is his second Bud Pole and series-leading 12th top-10 start in 2006.
• This is Busch’s first Bud Pole and fifth top-10, including four top-fives, in six NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series race at Infineon Raceway.
• Busch became the 10th different Bud Pole winner at Infineon.
• Jamie McMurray posted the second-quickest qualifying lap of 77.075 seconds, 92.948 mph – and will join Kurt Busch on the front row for the Dodge/SaveMart 350. McMurray posted his first start better than 11th in his fourth qualifying effort at Infineon. It is his career-best road-course start. He also started 11th at Watkins Glen in 2005 when qualifying was canceled.
• This is the eighth Bud Pole for Dodge in 2006. Chevrolet has four Bud Poles and Ford has three. Qualifying was canceled at Bristol.
• Kevin Harvick (third) posted his third top-10 start in six Infineon races and his career-best road course start.
• Ryan Newman (fourth) posted his first top-10 start in five races at Infineon Raceway. His previous career-best road-course start was fifth at Watkins Glen in 2002.
• The top-four qualifiers all posted their career-best, road-course starts.
• Boris Said (fifth) posted his fourth top-10 start in seven races at Infineon Raceway. He won the Bud Pole here in 2003.
• Kasey Kahne (sixth) posted his first start better than 26th in three races at Infineon.
• Greg Biffle (seventh) has posted two top-10 starts in four races at Infineon Raceway – but his other two starts were 32nd and 41st.
• Jeff Gordon (11th) has now gone 36 races since his last Bud Pole, which came at Infineon in May 2005 – extending his career-longest streak without a Bud Pole. Gordon went 30 races between Bud Poles from Charlotte in May 1997 through California in May 1998 – his longest streak before this.
• Said, P.J. Jones (15th), Ron Fellows (17th), Tom Hubert (30th) and David Gilliland (31st) brought the total number of drivers that have competed this season to 63. This will be the first career NASCAR NEXTEL Cup start for Gilliland.(NASCAR Statistical Services)(6-23-2006)