Biffle outruns Busch, Kahne for Carquest pole



It will be a busy weekend for drivers also running in the Coca-Cola 600.
CONCORD, N.C. (AP) -- Greg Biffle sped to his second Busch Series pole of the season, outrunning youngsters Kyle Busch and Kasey Kahne on Friday in qualifying for the Carquest Auto Parts 300 at Lowe's Motor Speedway.
Running his lap under bright sunshine, Biffle clocked in at 183.545 mph, about 0.015 seconds better than Busch. Kevin Harvick, Joe Nemechek and Tony Stewart followed Kahne; all also are running the Coca-Cola 600 this weekend.
"The lap was absolutely perfect," Biffle said. "Down in Turns 3 and 4 is where I got all my speed. I just got right back to the gas earlier than I ever have. When you have a perfect car, it's easy to drive a fast lap."
Series point leader Martin Truex Jr. ended up seventh, with Ron Hornaday Jr., Jason Leffler and David Green rounding out the top 10.
Full Busch schedule
Biffle is running the full Busch schedule besides his Nextel Cup duties with Roush Racing, and so far, his decision hasn't worked out as he planned. He's ninth in the Busch standings despite two victories, mostly because he has failed to finish four races.
"I don't regret taking the challenge of doing both," he said. "We have two weekends off so far in the Nextel Cup season, and both times I've gone and raced the Busch car and blown up and fallen out of the race.
"That makes me think, 'Why did I waste my time off to come and do this?' That kind of disappointed me."
Busch made his Busch Series debut last May and finished second, and in his first full-time season in 2004, he's currently second in points, 31 behind Truex. Busch got his first series victory two weeks ago at Richmond.
Blur
"It's definitely been a blur," Busch said. "If I had the experience last year that I do now, I probably would have won that race."
And Friday, he just didn't have enough speed to beat Biffle's No. 60 Ford.
"We just went out there to try to do the best job we could," Busch said. "It would have been tough to beat the 60 car."
Kahne, a Nextel Cup rookie, had the perfect time to qualify, going out when the track was nearly completely shaded by clouds. It's the third time this season he's been in the top three.
"I probably had the best time of anybody to go out," Kahne said. "It was our best qualifying in a while, and when the sun came back out, I was pretty excited. I didn't think there was anybody that was going to catch Greg."
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