Busch Wins ARCA Pole at Pocono

POCONO, Pa. (July 24, 2003) – Kyle Busch, driver of the No. 87 ditech.com Chevrolet, earned the Pennsylvania 200 pole position during ARCA Series qualifying at Pocono (Pa.) Raceway on Thursday. With a lap of 170.849 mph (52.678 seconds), the 18-year-old shattered Casey Mears’ month-old ARCA track record of 169.802 mph (53.003 seconds). “I’m having a great time out here with (crew chief) Gary DeHart and all the boys,” Busch said. “The whole Hendrick Motorsports organization is just great, and having ditech.com as a sponsor has been really awesome for us.” The pole at Pocono is the second for Busch in ARCA competition this season. The Las Vegas native won from the inside of Row 1 in his first-ever start with Hendrick Motorsports at Nashville (Tenn.) Superspeedway on April 11 -- also a track record. Busch’s qualifying competition included NASCAR Winston Cup Series regulars Mears and Christian Fittipaldi (third), NASCAR Busch Series driver David Reutimann (fourth) and four-time ARCA champion Frank Kimmel (fifth). Since joining Hendrick Motorsports in February, Busch has two victories (Kentucky Speedway and Nashville) and two pole positions (Pocono and Nashville) in ARCA competition, along with a second-place finish in his only Busch Series start of the season at Lowe’s Motor Speedway in May. Saturday’s Pennsylvania 200 will mark his fifth ARCA start of the year and the sixth of his career. “The car setups are exactly where I need them to be to win races and sit on poles,” Busch said. “There’s still much more to come this year -- we have six Busch races left to go and, of course, these last few ARCA races.” After Saturday’s event, Busch’s next scheduled appearance will be at Indianapolis Raceway Park on Aug. 2 in the Busch Series -- his second career start on the circuit.