Labonte scores Texas pole

Labonte, 28th out among 47 entrants, busted semi-retired Bill Elliott from the top spot. Elliott, making only his second start of the season, ran 27.874s. Rookie Kasey Kahne, Elliott's Evernham Motorsports team-mate, was third at 27.882s, with Greg Biffle and Joe Nemechek filling the top five.

Labonte, the 2000 champion, won his first pole since last August at Michigan. His last victory came in the season-closer last fall at Homestead. Kahne has qualified top-five in five of the first seven races, including two poles.

Labonte, however, matched at least one of the feats of his brother, Terry, who won the pole for this race in 2000 and the race itself in 1999. The Labonte brothers are the only Texas natives in the series and are touted as such, despite being from Corpus Christi, 500 miles to the south...

"I think we were about fifth on the first time by," Bobby said of his first lap. "I thought, 'I don't think the car can go much faster.' But it stuck pretty good out of [Turn] 2, and then we got a real good run off 4. It stuck like glue. I don't think it could have gone any better today."

The entry list was augmented by the entries of Elliott, pole-winner here last year, and Kyle Busch. Busch, pole-winner for Saturday's Busch race here, crashed his main car in practice, then failed to make speed in the trials and missed the show.

Meanwhile, Larry Foyt, making just his second try of the season, got in on speed, as did Dave Blaney in an unsponsored Bill Davis car. Derrike Cope and Todd Bodine also made the top 38.

That bumped Ken Schrader the Michael Waltrip into the provisionals list. Andy Belmont wrecked on his qualifying lap and could not make the trials.