BURKART'S 4.89 STUNS THE PACK, LANDS No. 1

Phil Burkart, driving his special edition Chevron Techron Monte Carlo, entered the second session of qualifying here in the 16th spot, having smoked the tires early on his first pass. As part of the second pair in session two, he still sat 16th as he left the starting line. 4.898 impressive seconds later, Burkart had moved all the way to the top of the list, though most in attendance figured the big hitters in the class would simply use that as a mark to shoot for. That they did, but none could surpass it, and Burkart ended the day on Friday as the No. 1 man for the first time in his career. He has never finished qualifying as the No. 1 ranked driver, but is half-way there.

"Being that early in the session, I'm sure just about every guy on our team thought it was a great run but someone would run quicker," Burkart said. "The crew went back to the pit to work on the car, but I went and hung out at the starting line to watch the rest of the class run. When I got back to the pit, some of the guys asked me 'Where'd we end up?' They actually didn't know, but assumed someone had bounced us back a few rungs. They were pretty pumped up to hear we were No. 1.

"We also had top speed, with a 316.75, so that's cool too. Both Checker, Schuck's, Kragen cars have been running big speed all year, and we really have run pretty well for two teams that aren't any higher than we are in the points. Maybe we can hold on to this top spot and win some big rounds tomorrow. That would be cool, to run this Techron car all day on Sunday. I know the Chevron people would love that, and so would I."