Truex Beats Boss, Takes Pole

One of Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s Chevrolets will be on the pole for today’s Hershey’s Kisses 300 NASCAR Busch series race at Daytona International Speedway, but Junior won’t be in the driver’s seat.

Martin Truex Jr., 23, a protege of Earnhardt on his Chance 2 team, showed the way in Friday’s qualifying, winning the No. 1 starting position with a lap at 181.138 mph in cold, windy conditions.

Earnhardt, winner of the last two Busch races and a favorite to win his third, could manage only 180.310 from his Chevrolet, good for eighth place.

“Kevin [crew chief Manion] told me I was going to beat the boss,” said an elated Truex, who had never qualified better than seventh, although he finished second in the last two races of 2003. “He’s been saying that since we were down here testing.”

Ron Hornaday Jr., the former Saugus Speedway champion from Palmdale, took the other front-row position at 181.108 mph, also in a Chevrolet.

“When you’re that close, sometimes you wish you were 10th,” said Hornaday, who was racing at Saugus before Truex was born. “We knew we had a good race car. That just shows what a good job Richard Childress Racing does.”

Ten Nextel Cup drivers who will run in Sunday’s Daytona 500, including pole-sitter Greg Biffle, are among the 38 starters in today’s Busch race. Kevin Harvick qualified third and Robby Gordon fifth.

One Daytona 500 driver -- a former winner, in fact -- Derrike Cope, found the Busch field too tough and failed to qualify.

Truex, a second-generation Busch series driver from Mayetta, N.J., has never raced on Daytona’s 2.5-mile, tri-oval.

“Everybody dreams of coming to race at Daytona,” he said. “It’s the biggest race of the year. Growing up as a kid, you always watch the Daytona 500 and everybody wants to get here and race, so of course I wanted to get here as soon as I could.

“I think the hardest part is going to be drafting in the draft for the whole race. I drafted at the NASCAR test at Talladega in December. We ran about 600 miles in the draft for two days and I got real comfortable with that. We ran three-wide most of the time so I think that’s going to help me out a lot here.”

Despite his success Friday, Truex says the boss is the man to beat today.

“No doubt, he should be the favorite,” Truex said. “Hopefully, I can lead him around for a while, but if he gets to me and gets by me, believe me I’ll be the first one to grab onto his rear bumper and just follow him the rest of the day. He’s the master at Daytona. Hopefully we get together tomorrow and help each other.”

Earnhardt, who tuned up for today’s race by winning one of the twin 125 Nextel Cup qualifying races Thursday, credited his Chance 2 crew for giving him and Truex fast race cars.

“I’m happy for the Chance 2 guys who got to see their car win the pole,” Earnhardt said. “It’ll be nice to have a teammate in the Busch race up front. Maybe me and Martin can have some fun on Saturday. That’s just awesome.”