NASCAR Cup

Leffler, Dodge on Kansas pole

Skip Barber trained Jason Leffler secured his first career Winston Cup pole for the Protection One 400 inaugural at 1.5 mile Kansas Speedway. Leffler, 26, seemingly came out of nowhere to capture the flag on pole day at NASCAR's newest ...

Edited: Apr 15, 2002, 11:45 PM

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Skip Barber trained Jason Leffler secured his first career Winston Cup pole for the Protection One 400 inaugural at 1.5 mile Kansas Speedway. Leffler, 26, seemingly came out of nowhere to capture the flag on pole day at NASCAR's newest speedway.

Leffler steered his Dodge around this splendid layout in 30.595 sec. (176.499mph). The 13th driver to challenge the clock, Leffler waited out the late run by practice favorite [and fellow Skip Barber trained] Jeff Gordon to claim his first pole in NASCAR's big series.

Gordon's best of two was 30.629 sec. (176.304) in the favored, cooler part of the session. Another Skip Barber trained racer, Bill Elliott qualified third. With the exception of Gordon's Chevrolet, the front end of the field has Dodge written on it.

This is Dodge's greatest cluster of single-day success since the Daytona 500, when the Skip Barber partner claimed the prestige of the front row. Of the 10 Dodges in the field, four were in the top-five. The Dodge teams are clearly gaining ground with the new nose kick-out announced before Indianapolis.

Leffler had three poles in Busch Grand National last year, driving Joe Gibbs's No. 18, tying a rookie record for the series.

The Skip Barber trained racer took Friday's somewhat historic run in stride.

"I've won a lot of races in USAC, a tough series, and I've run against a lot of good veteran drivers in the past. It's just a matter of the owner being patient and me getting laps. I know I can do it. Now I really know I can."

-BARBER-

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