Busch

	Elliott

INDIANAPOLIS -- Kurt Busch and Bill Elliott turned laps faster than the Indianapolis Motor Speedway record for stock cars in practice Friday for the Brickyard 400.

Busch drove his Roush Racing Ford around the 2½-mile oval at 181.734 mph, while Elliott's Evernham Motorsports Dodge was caught at 181.613, both surpassing the qualifying record of 181.072 set in 2000 by Brett Bodine.

To officially take the record, someone will have to beat Bodine's speed Saturday in qualifying for the 400-mile event. Records can be set only in qualifying for Sunday's race.

''We're executing what we did in testing (here last month) and applying what we learned,'' Busch said. ''It's a fun racetrack.''

Series points leader Sterling Marlin was third in a Dodge at 180.992, followed by the Chevrolet of Dale Earnhardt Jr. at 180.758, the Ford of Mark Martin at 180.578 and the Ford of rookie Ryan Newman at 180.422.

Rounding out the top 10 were the Chevy of Michael Waltrip at 180.368, the Ford of Matt Kenseth at 180.292 and the Pontiacs of Johnny Benson and Tony Stewart at 180.285 and 180,270, respectively.

Qualifying is scheduled to start at 10:05 a.m., which should fill the 43-car field well before the worst heat of the day. The time a driver goes out for his two-lap run could make a significant difference in the speeds on the temperature-sensitive track.

The qualifying order was set in a blind draw after Friday's practice.

''The bad thing is we're not going to qualify in the morning,'' Marlin said. ''With our draw, we'll probably get closer to lunch time. Bill (Elliott) goes out fourth and the 97 (Busch) ran real good in the test up here.''

Busch had the same complaint, though.

''I felt lucky at the draw, but we didn't draw as good as we would have liked,'' said Busch, whose fast lap Friday came around 3:30 p.m. ''We'll probably go out about 1:30. We'll make one change and we'll be ready.''

Elliott, coming off a victory last Sunday at Pocono Raceway, isn't sure what to expect Saturday, when he tires for his third consecutive pole. His victory in Pocono's Pennsylvania 500 was the first from the pole this year and the first since Elliott won after qualifying No. 1 last year in the season-ending race at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

''We never tried any qualifying runs at the test (here), and now we've just to give it our best shot,'' Elliott said. ''It's a work in progress.''

Former winners of the Brickyard didn't fare well in practice.

Three-time and defending winner Jeff Gordon was 27th at 178.504, two-time winner Dale Jarrett was 17th at 179.487, Ricky Rudd was 19th at 179.361 and Bobby Labonte was 36th at 177.595.

''We tried some things and they didn't work,'' Rudd said.