Qualifying: Bodine keeps it in the family

Bodine won the pole with a lap at 93.724 miles per hour around the 0.526-mile flat oval in Southern Virginia in a Ford Taurus. It was his third pole of the season and the fourth of his career.

Bodine's oldest brother, Geoffrey, won seven NASCAR modified races, four Winston Cup races including his first victory in 1984 for Hendrick Motorsports and two Busch Grand National victories. Brett Bodine, the middle brother, won two modified races and two Busch wins at Martinsville and Todd ran his first career sportsman race in 1986.

Todd finally added his name to the Bodine list of accomplishments with Friday's pole. Now, he is hoping to join Geoffrey by scoring his first Winston Cup win on Sunday.

"It's important to get to victory lane, no matter what race track," Todd Bodine said. "But for myself and for my family, it would be a little more special to do it at Martinsville. This was the first race track I raced when I moved South to race NASCAR."

Dale Earnhardt Jr will start on the outside of the first row with his best-ever-short track qualifying effort at 93.617 mph in a Chevrolet.

"I don't know how we did it," Earnhardt said. "I didn't think the car was going to be that fast. I must have just hit on the marks just right."

Jeff Gordon, who has a 237-point lead over Ricky Rudd in the NASCAR Winston Cup point's standings with seven races remaining, qualified third at 93.488 mph in a Chevrolet.

Ford driver Dale Jarrett's 93.322 mph and Pontiac's Johnny Benson's 93.290 mph rounded out the top five in the 43-car field. Rudd qualified 19th.

For full qualifying results click here.