MARTINSVILLE, Va., Oct. 20 (UPI) -- Kurt Busch Friday won the pole for Sunday's Subway 500 Nextel Cup race at the Martinsville (Va.) Speedway.
His Penske Dodge circled the 0.526-mile short track in 19.408 seconds (97.568 mph).
The pole victory was his series-leading sixth of the season and seventh of his Nextel Cup career.
Jeff Gordon will start alongside Busch on the front row. Gordon is a seven-time winner at Martinsville and posted a second-best time of 19.446 seconds.
Rookie Denny Hamlin (19.484) and Busch's teammate, Ryan Newman (19.489), will make up row two.
Jeff Burton, who will start in the 28th position, has a 45-point lead halfway through his first "Chase" for the Nextel Cup.
This season, Burton has four top-10 finishes and won the Dover 400 in September.
He was third in last week's Bank of America 500 at Concord, N.C., while overcoming a transmission problem late in the race.
