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BUSCH: St. Louis: Ashton Lewis qualifying notes

Lewis delivers early Mother'S Day gift. MADISON, IL (May 9, 2003) -- Driver Ashton Lewis, Jr. delivered the best early mother's day gift he could imagine, his first career pole. Lewis set a blistering pole speed of 34.116 (131.903 mph) around the ...

Edited: Apr 16, 2008, 12:40 AM

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Lewis delivers early Mother'S Day gift.

MADISON, IL (May 9, 2003) -- Driver Ashton Lewis, Jr. delivered the best early mother's day gift he could imagine, his first career pole. Lewis set a blistering pole speed of 34.116 (131.903 mph) around the 1.25 mile Gateway International Speedway.

"It's really funny how things work. I went out there this morning and made my first run and the steering wheel was hitting my leg, so I came in to fix it and when I did I shorted out every wire in the dash. My crew fixed what they could and got me back out on the track. I was making my first mock qualifying run and both ignition boxes went out, I actually thought I had blown the engine. We did not get to make any mock qualifying runs so Charlie (Lewis, Crew Chief and Ashton's brother) had to guess at the setup and I'd say he did an amazing job."

"I am just so amazed to get my first pole here, this is probably the last place I would have expected it. I guess that was the key, not expecting it actually puts less pressure on you and you are able to relax and do your job. Our performances here have not been good, and we practiced here once last year and had a horrible session in which we never found a good setup."

"I can't tell you how thrilled I am to get my first pole and the first pole for Civil Air Patrol, they deserve this every bit as much as we do."

Prior to today, Lewis' best start of the season was 14th at Bristol Motor Speedway, and his best career start was 3rd at Pikes Peak Int'l Raceway in 2002.

-lm-

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