Burton

CONCORD, N.C. -- Jeff Burton set a new track record Friday in winning his first Busch Series pole of the 2001 season, taking the top spot for the Little Trees 300.

Burton, often a poor qualifier, ran a lap at 179.485 mph around the 1½-mile oval at Lowe's Motor Speedway ahead of Saturday's race.

His lap bested the year-old record of 178.956 mph set by Matt Kenseth, his Winston Cup teammate. Burton, whose previous best start here in a Busch race was fourth, said he knew early in the day he might have a chance at the mark in his Ford.

"We were fast this morning right off the bat, right off the truck," he said. "It slowed down with some of the changes we made."

He then got some help when a cloud cover rolled over the track shortly before he was set to hit the track.

"The cloud came in about 10 cars before I went out and stuck around a while and that really cooled the track down for a period of time," he said.

Michael Waltrip, another Winston Cup regular, held the pole for most of the qualifying until Burton bumped him off. His speed of 178.909 mph put him on the outside of the front row and in the top five for the first time this year, but he thought he could have held down the top position.

"I was kind of disappointed, I missed Turn 1 on both laps, totally overshot the corner both times," he said. "I assumed my tires weren't ready yet on the first lap. I went down in there on the second lap and looked over said, `Uh, I'm supposed to be over there.'

"I think if I had done a little better job there and had a different gear, we may have gotten the pole."

That was just the start of Waltrip's bad day -- he wrecked his Chevrolet during the final practice of the day and will need to go to a backup car for the race. That means he'll fall to the back of the field before the green flag is dropped.

Greg Biffle qualified third, and was followed by Ward Burton, who placed crew chief Tommy Baldwin's No. 5 Chevrolet in fourth position in its Busch Series debut.

Todd Bodine, yet another Winston Cup regular, qualified fifth. Jeff Green was sixth, and series points leader Kevin Harvick was seventh.