HOMESTEAD, Fla. -- About the only thing that is going to slow down Kurt Busch is the offseason.

Busch continued his torrid pace Friday by winning the pole for Sunday's Ford 400.

	Kurt Busch, left, walks with his girlfriend after taking the pole Friday for Sunday's Ford 400 at Homestead, Fla.

Busch ran a top lap of 154.365 miles per hour around the 1.5-mile Homestead-Miami Speedway to capture the second pole of his career. He will start the Roush Racing Ford next to Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s Chevrolet.

Earnhardt held the pole after running a lap at 153.881 mph.

In the past month, no driver in NASCAR has been hotter than Busch, who won back-to-back events at Martinsville and Atlanta, followed by a third-place finish at Rockingham. He led 117 laps at Phoenix last Sunday before finishing sixth.

That has helped move Busch from 11th in the points race two months ago to third behind points leader Tony Stewart and Mark Martin.

"We're focused on what Sunday has within it and where we're at in the points situation," Busch said. "Sunday is way more important, but this is a great start. To know that we're headed in the right direction, it just feels great.

"I can't wait for 2003 to begin."

Jimmy Spencer, driving in his final race for Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates, was the third at 152.862 mph in a Dodge. Joe Nemechek's lap at 152.780 mph in a Chevrolet and Greg Biffle's 152.607 in a Dodge rounded out the top five.

Four-time Winston Cup champion Jeff Gordon failed to make the field on speed for the first time in his 10-year Winston Cup career. He ran a lap at 150.079 mph in a Chevrolet and was forced to take a provisional starting position for the first time.

Stewart enters Sunday's race with an 89-point lead over Martin in the battle for the championship. He can wrap up the title if he finishes 22nd or better, regardless of where Martin finishes, or places 24th or better and leads one lap, or 25th or better and leads the most laps.

That could change if a three-member panel from the National Stock Car Commission overturns a 25-point penalty assessed to Martin two weeks ago when his front coil springs were too short.

The commission meets Saturday. If Martin gets back those 25 points, Stewart would have to finish 14th or better to wrap up the title.

Stewart qualified sixth at 152.547 mph in a Pontiac while Martin had a terrible qualification performance and will start 34th in a Ford with a lap at 150.184 mph.

"That wasn't the prettiest lap out here today, but we had a good lap," Stewart said. "We've got a really good car. We're normally 'bad to the bone' on Sunday here. Our car is really, really good in race trim, so I'm pretty excited about Sunday now."

While Stewart is looking forward to his chances at winning the title, Martin was distraught over his poor qualification performance.

"It was terrible," he said. "We weren't prepared for the sun like this. We're not used to this qualifying time, practice and everything and we missed it. But we've got a great race car for the race and this is just one part of it."

Martin's teammate at Roush Racing had a brighter outlook for Sunday's race after winning the pole.

"We had a dismal month of August that really kicked us down," Busch said. "We had a couple of pitfalls along the way with a motor at Charlotte and a motor at Kansas, but after that, it's been a dream season."