Leffler Climbs Back Up and Wins Busch 300 Pole

Jason Leffler, NASCAR’s “most likely to succeed” driver when he came out of Long Beach as a three-time U.S. Auto Club midget car champion in 1999 and the brightest of a crop of fast youngsters, is 28 now and still trying to meet his potential.

Friday, he took a step toward the heights expected of him when he lapped California Speedway’s two-mile D-shaped oval at 182.223 mph in Gene Haas’ Chevrolet to take the pole for today’s California 300 Busch series race.

It was his first pole of the season and his first since winning three as a rookie in 2000 with Joe Gibbs Racing. After 49 races, however, he is still looking for his first Busch win. His best finish this year is a fifth last week at Talladega.

“It’s great for the team,” Leffler said Friday. “We’ve got a real young team. It was a smooth lap, but I didn’t know really what to expect. I didn’t get to practice a qualifying lap. It was all race practice earlier today. I hope it pays off Saturday.”

Martin Truex Jr., the Dale Earnhardt Jr. protege who won the Talladega race, will start alongside Leffler after a lap of 181.566 in the Taco Bell Chevy owned by the Earnhardts, Junior and stepmother, Teresa.

Despite the presence of a number of Nextel Cup regulars, such as Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart, Kevin Harvick, Matt Kenseth and Kasey Kahne, the front row will be two Busch series regulars.

Leffler’s career has been as jumpy as Robby Gordon’s. After he became Busch rookie of the year in 2000 for Gibbs, he jumped to Chip Ganassi’s Winston Cup team, where he had only one top-10 finish. In 2002, he moved to Craftsman Trucks for Jim Smith’s team and last year left the trucks after 16 races to join Haas’ Busch team.

His best finish was a fourth in the season’s final race at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Today’s race will start at 1 p.m.

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Clint Bowyer of Emporia, Kan., in a NAPA Chevrolet owned by Bill McAnally, will be on the pole today when the $228,000 King Taco 200, a Grand National West (formerly Winston West) rolls off the starting line at 9:20 a.m. Bowyer, who usually drives in the Busch series, qualified at 173.339 mph, nearly 2 mph faster than runner-up Brandon Miller of Bakersfield, who did 171.694.

However, Miller crashed his Pontiac during post-qualifying practice and because his team had no backup available, he withdrew from today’s race. That moved Kevin Conway of Lynchburg, Va., up to the front row.

“We were kind of skipping around the track and fine-tuning things,” said Miller, the Mesa Marin Raceway late model champion in 2002. “I felt something weird going into Turn 1 the previous lap and when I came back around I hit some oil and spun out and backed into the fence. Sometimes this happens. It is tough to accept, after coming in second in qualifying, but it happens and we have to move on. This is the only car we have, so withdrawing is hard to take.”

Sean Woodside, of Saugus, was caught in the same oil patch and also hit the wall, forcing him to go to a backup car for today’s race.

“At least we got to try out the new walls,” the 1999 Winston West champion said. “Unfortunately, the car is out. Going to the backup car will change everything because I have not been able to test it on the track yet.”

Scott Lynch, the series champion last year, will also start from the rear after his crew changed engines in his Orleans Dodge Intrepid. Lynch had qualified fifth at 170.916.

Grand National West drivers were not on the track Friday and will not have a practice session before the start of today’s 100-lap race.

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In a move aimed at stopping a run of bad luck, Bowyer will be driving with a new helmet and gloves, and in his pocket he will have a replica Elvis Presley driver’s license.

“I have always been an Elvis fan and if you win a race, you play Elvis,” Bowyer said. “A friend of mine gave me this driver’s license at Talladega and I have kept it in my pocket since.”

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Austin Cameron, in the other NAPA Chevrolet, returned to California Speedway for the first time since undergoing chemotherapy for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and qualified 17th in the 29-car Grand National West field.

“The last time I was here, I was the spotter,” he said. “It’s not quite the same as being the driver. We’ve been looking forward to this race. We’re not starting in such a good spot, but it’s 100 laps. That’s a long way.”

The UC Santa Barbara graduate finished second to Harvick in the 1998 Busch race at Fontana.