Jeff Burton wins Busch pole

DARLINGTON, S.C., March 15 (UPI) -- Jeff Burton claimed the pole Friday for Saturday's NASCAR Busch Grand National

series darlingtonraceway.com 200 at Darlington Raceway.

Driving his No. 9 Ford, Burton recorded a lap of 168.250 miles per hour on the 1.366-mile, egg-shaped oval to earn his ninth career Busch pole in his 221st start.

Jeff Green will start on the outside of the front row in his Chevrolet after posting a lap of 168.100 mph.

Jason Keller, Green's former Busch teammate, will start third in a Ford, followed by Scott Riggs' Ford.

Burton qualified 37th of the 45 drivers and bumped Green from the pole -- his second in as many races this year after he took both the top qualifying spot and the race at Las Vegas earlier this month.

"I thought that was a pretty good lap and we made some changes just before qualifying from practice," Burton said. "We were a little off in the morning practice, but that's kind of normal for many of us.

"We worked hard on our race setup this morning and just shook at qualifying at the last minute. It seemed to work real well, too."

Green has had success at Darlington, with top-10 finishes in each of his last four visits. But even with the experience of 13 Busch starts on the track, he still fears Burton.

"I knew that he would be go after what we saw in practice and he has a shot at beating us," Green said.