NASCAR-WCUP: Jarrett Grabs Pole for Sunday's Pepsi Southern 500
6 September 1998
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Jarrett will be joined on the front row for Sunday's event by Ward Burton, who ran a lap of 168.677 mph in his No. 22 MBNA America Pontiac Grand Prix, second fastest of the 46 cars to attempt qualifying runs.
"This is a payback for all my guys who worked so hard on my racecar," said Jarrett, who won his second pole of the year. "It had to of 100 degrees when we tested here a couple of weeks ago and they just never quit working on getting this car better. This pole is a reward for them.
We had a great test here and thought we would be a threat for the pole, but until we finished our lap I wasn't sure how fast we would go. Todd (Parrott) made some great adjustments with the air pressure. This was a total team effort."
"That was a real good lap," said Burton. "It was almost like it was a little bit too smooth. I don't know if I could have gone any harder to get the pole, but we'll take second and go from there. We qualified up front again and know we need to improve on our race package."
In the day's other action, Mike McLaughlin set the pace by securing the pole position for Saturday's Dura Lube 200 Presented by Bi-Lo NASCAR Busch Series event. He turned in lap of 164.661 mph to lead 46 cars in qualifying. Rounding out the top five in Friday's qualifying was Elliott Sadler (164.562 mph), Buckshot Jones (164.551 mph), Dick Trickle (164.270 mph) and Mark Martin (164.013 mph).
The best of the NASCAR Busch Series will receive the green flag at 1 p.m. for Saturday's Dura Lube 200 Presented by Bi-Lo, the 25th race of the 1998 NASCAR Busch Series season. Grandstand and infield tickets will be available for the event at the gate. For reserved seat tickets to Sunday's Pepsi Southern 500, visit the Speedway ticket office or call (803) 395-8499.
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