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Busch On Pole Is No Surprise

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The Associated Press

The Tampa Tribune

Published: May 17, 2008

CONCORD, N.C. - Kyle Busch said he was surprised. No one else was.

NASCAR's hottest driver notched another success in an amazing season by winning the pole Friday night for tonight's Sprint All-Star race. Driving Joe Gibbs Racing's No. 18 Toyota, he completed three laps with a four-tire pit stop in 2 minutes, 1.956 seconds and an average speed of 132.835 mph.

"I thought I got busted for pit road speeding there," Busch said. "If I wasn't speeding, it was close. Very close."

Busch has won eight races in NASCAR's top three divisions, including two of the last three in Sprint Cup, and leads the Cup standings. He also started on the pole in Friday night's Craftsman Truck Series race.

"If Kevin Harvick thought the Toyotas had motors before, watch out now, because we're coming big-time," Busch said. "This stuff's nice. We just keep clicking them off and keep going."

Three-time all-star race winner Jeff Gordon will start second in the 24th edition of the special event, which has been extended by 20 laps and will be divided into four 25-lap segments. Kurt Busch and Martin Truex Jr. secured the second row. Defending champion Harvick starts 16th.

Busch is a co-favorite in the race with Carl Edwards, who has won three races on tracks similar to Lowe's Motor Speedway. But Edwards qualified only 19th. Gordon noted that Edwards was fast in practice.

The all-star field has 21 drivers so far. Two more will advance from tonight's Sprint Showdown qualifying race, and a third will be voted in by fans. Elliott Sadler won the pole for the Showdown. Zephyrhills' David Reutimann qualified 17th.

BACK AT THE SCENE: The Busch brothers knocked each other out in last year's all-star race. On Friday, Kyle said the hard feelings weren't resolved until Christmas.

"Grandma asked for a Christmas present that we both get along and go to Christmas dinner together, so that was her present," Kyle said. "It was a little edgy to begin with because that's the first time we'd sat down together. The more it went, it kind of got back to normal and friendly and whatever."

Racing for a $1 million payday in last year's final segment, the Busch brothers got together after Kyle made a daring move to the inside while Kurt was passing Jeff Burton.

Neither will admit fault.

"You can look at it and say it was my move for making an aggressive move, but it's the last segment of the all-star race and you've got to go," Kyle said. "Or you could say it was Kurt Busch's fault that he didn't give me enough room ..."

KYLE TO F1? Kyle Busch is racing in the Sprint Cup, Nationwide and Craftsman Truck Series. Friday, he was talking about testing an F1 car.

"We're working on a test session right now for the end of November or beginning of December, going to Japan and doing a little exhibition to see what it's like," he said. "We'll take a Cup car over there too, I think."

Tony Fabrizio

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