Labonte Claims Pole, Record at Las Vegas

The first night qualifying for a Winston Cup day race occurred Friday after heavy rains delayed the start of the time trials at Las Vegas Motor Speedway for nearly four hours.

Bobby Labonte, driving one of Joe Gibbs’ Chevrolets, captured the pole with a track record speed of 173.016 mph in a late run that knocked Jeff Gordon off the pole for Sunday’s UAW-Daimler Chrysler 400. Gordon, third to take to the track out of 45 qualifiers, posted a 172.772 mph speed and watched 40 drivers come up short before Labonte rolled off pit lane.

“We made a few adjustments before qualifying after watching the weather all day and it seemed to pay off,” said Labonte. “We came out here and tested in January, but we didn’t make any qualifying runs. The guys in the shop gave me a great little race car and we’re looking forward to Sunday.”

The old pole record of 172.850 mph was set by Todd Bodine last year.

It was Labonte’s second pole here. He was No. 1 in 1999.

Winston Cup night qualifying has been held at four other tracks, but it was always for night races. Labonte took the green flag for his run at 8:08 p.m.

Qualifying for today’s Sam’s Town 300, a Busch Grand National race, was canceled so stuntman Stanton Barrett, driving the car Greg Biffle won the series championship with last year, will start on the pole.

Barrett got the No. 1 position despite ranking only 46th last year. Qualifying positions belong to car owners, not drivers. The spot belonged to car owner Jack Roush, who replaced Biffle with Barrett this season after Biffle moved up to Winston Cup.

Biffle failed to make the Winston Cup race. He was bumped from the 43-car field when seven drivers with provisional starting berths claimed their spots.