DOVER, Del. — Joe Nemechek added another pole to his glittering Busch series resume, taking the top spot with a qualifying record Friday at Dover International Speedway.
It was the third Busch pole this year and 17th overall for 1992 series champion Nemechek, a Winston Cup regular who also will race Sunday in NASCAR's top series. He'll try for his 15th Busch career win and third of 2003 on Saturday.
He likes his chances.
"This is a brand new race car we came up here with a few weeks ago and tested for a day, but all we did was race stuff so qualifying was a feather in our caps," he said. "So we're pretty fast in race trim."
At the very least, Nemechek's test went far better than one he made two years ago at The Monster Mile, when he crashed and broke a leg, putting him out of action for several weeks.
"I knocked the wall out in Turn 3," he recalled. "We just wanted to come back and work on some things."
Nemechek put his Chevrolet on the pole with a run of 156.747 mph. That edged out Kasey Kahne, whose Ford had a fast lap of 155.750.
The top seven qualifiers bettered Mike Skinner's track record of 155.932, set in the fall of 2000.
Nemechek is winless in 13 races, with a best finish of second on the high-banked concrete surface, and history is not on his side. In 21 years of Busch racing at Dover, only Morgan Shepherd in 1986 won from the pole.
"Hopefully, we'll change the record books tomorrow," Nemechek said.
Kahne, a second-year driver still seeking his first career pole, was thrilled by his lap.
"It was a pretty good run for us," he said. "We gained a lot from practice.
"I was surprised it was that good because I had to lift coming off Turn 4."
Winston Cup regular Matt Kenseth, a former Dover Busch winner, qualified third in a Ford at 155.622, followed by the Ford of Scott Riggs at 155.615. Casey Mears, also doing double duty this weekend, was fifth in a Dodge at 155.568.
Completing the top 10 were Stanton Barrett, Martin Truex Jr., Ron Hornaday, Bobby Hamilton Jr. and Kevin Grubb.
Points leader Todd Bodine will go from the 14th spot on the grid.
Shepherd, at 61 the oldest NASCAR driver, qualified 21st.