Budweiser Earnhardt Jr. pole qualifying notes

Dale Earnhardt Jr. and the No. 8 Budweiser team won the Bud Pole for the fourth time in two seasons with a blistering lap at an average speed of 192.047 mph around the Atlanta Motor Speedway Friday afternoon. Dale Jr. will start from the Bud Pole in Sunday's NAPA 500, which can be seen live on NBC-TV beginning at 12:30 Eastern.

The lap of 28.86 seconds was almost a quarter-of-a second faster than the second-place qualifier, Mark Martin. It is the first Bud Pole for the team since the race at Texas in April.

Dale Jr:
"I saw the lap Mark (Martin) made and I said 'that's a great lap. What a stud...' Then we go out and beat his time by almost .3 (three-tenths), so I dunno WHAT that makes me...(laughs).We coulda been a little better - it bottomed out in turns one and two, but I felt like we had a great lap."

"I shut the car off after that lap. I'd had enough. I didn't want any more. That's fun, but at the speeds we're going, that is one helluva ride. I mean, this track is faster than Daytona or Talladega, and it really gets your heart pumping."

-Budweiser Racing-