BY TEAM FORD RACING CORRESPONDENT

Kansas City, Kansas — The big newsmaker of the week also closed the deal on the weekly exercise known as qualifying. That’s right, Dale Earnhardt Jr., who earlier this week revealed that he’d been driving with a concussion for a significant portion of the season, snagged the Bud pole with a record 30.350-second lap at 177.924 mph.

Earnhardt, was not allowed to speak freely of his day’s accomplishment. Rather he fielded many questions regarding his comment that he played hurt for about six weeks after he’d hit the wall during the April event in California. He’d sought advice from several drivers and doctors during his time of concern.

"I really didn’t expect to make it to be such a big deal talking about it with a couple of reporters," Earnhardt said of his interaction with reporters from the Associated Press and USA Today, the two largest circulation outlets in this country. “They wanted to know why we hadn’t had such a good season this year. We were picked to be one of the teams running for the championship and they wanted to know why we hadn’t done that."

Earnhardt’s teammate, Michael Waltrip, said that he never noticed much of a difference in how Earnhardt acted from late April to mid- to late June and added. “I’d have probably not said that” concluded Waltrip regarding Earnhardt’s discussion with the media.

Starting next to Earnhardt will be rookie championship hopeful Jimmy Johnson, who came up just a tad short of Earnhardt with a 30.362-second lap at 177.854 mph.

Best in class for the Blue Oval was Ryan Newman’s third place 30.526-second lap at 176.898 mph. Newman, who appears to be on a late season surge, ran a 30.526-second lap at 176.898 mph. "We didn’t have what Junior had, there’s no doubt about that,” said Newman after his effort. “Overall, it was a good run for the Alltel Ford.

“It [the lap] wasn’t what we were looking for, we wanted to be a contender for the pole, but that’s all we had. We had a shot at the pole, but it’s hard beating those Chevrolets,” added Newman, with an eye towards the one-inch that NASCAR recently added to the nose of the Monte Carlo.

Waltrip and Bill Elliott filled the remainder of the Top-5 starting spots.

“I drove like a young, dumb rookie I think because there’s no way I should have made it around,’ said point leader Mark Martin about his ninth place run. “I know I couldn’t do it again, but I’m real happy with that. We’ve got a new car here and the car really didn’t ever work that good for us. I feel like when we get in race setup we’ll be able to get a chance to kind of get it worked out. I think we’ll be good for Sunday and, lucky for us, we’re gonna get a decent starting spot, too."

Three cars didn’t make the cut for Sunday’s Protection One Winston Cup race. They were Brett Bodine, Kirk Shelmerdine and Carl Long. Making the show with provisional starting spots were Jimmy Spencer, Elliott Sadler, Ken Schrader, Casey Atwood, Jerry Nadeau, Stuart Kirby and Morgan Shepherd.

CREW CHIEF NEWS
Dale Earnhardt Inc. announced today that Tony Gibson would assume the role of crew chief, starting at the beginning of the 2003 season. Gibson will have to wait as his contract with Hendrick Motorsports, where he served as Jeff Gordon’s car chief, runs through the end of this year.

Frankie Stoddard, the displace crew chief from the No. 99 team, was visiting Travis Carter’s Statesville, N.C., operation earlier this week. While no specifics were outlined, it was suggested that perhaps Stoddard could be a possibility to wrench Hideo Fukuyama’s Ford for 2003.

Fukuyama, who tested Carter’s Ford at Rockingham, N.C., on Tuesday and Wednesday, apparently has a tidy sponsorship package behind him; and there could be an announcement on that front in the near future. Carter’s chances at having two full sponsorships for next year are looking better with each passing week as Discover Card Services personnel are making all the right noises as far as continuing their sponsorship of the No. 26 Todd Bodine driven Ford. It’ll be a few days before Carter knows for sure, but at least the hope is alive; and doing very well.