Qualifying: Elliott Dodges to pole

Elliott took the pole with a lap at 155.226mph in his Intrepid. It was Elliott's 51st career pole and his second this season.

"Qualifying is one aspect of it," Elliott said. "I came down here a couple weeks ago and tested and I was terrible. We came back and made some pretty good adjustments and got a whole lot better. I was kind of worried coming back down here where I'd end up. Mike Ford (crew chief) and all the guys really worked hard. That's what this business is all about. It isn't about me."

Casey Atwood, Elliott's team mate at Ray Evernham Motorsports, qualified second at 154.688mph. John Andretti put his Petty Enterprises Dodge third on the grid with a lap at 154.268mph.

The only non-Dodge team to crack the top five was Ricky Rudd, who qualified his Ford Taurus fourth at 153.811mph. Marlin rounded out the top five for Dodge with a fifth-place qualifying lap at 153.571mph.

Rudd enters the race 326 points behind Jeff Gordon in the battle for the Winston Cup title with three races remaining. If Gordon adds 44 points to his lead after Sunday's race, Gordon, who qualified 11th, will clinch the title.

"I'm real pleased with that," Rudd said of his lap. "All of these guys on this Texaco Havoline Ford did a great job. We just can't run against that Dodge downforce. They've got an air dam that sticks out - when you come off of turn four the thing is crossing the start-finish line, so we can't compete with that. We're fast for our class, but we've got a tough race in front of us. We're gonna go out there and do the best we can. Hopefully, we'll end up towards the front."

Elliott was careful to point out that starting up front at Homestead doesn't always equate into success in the race. Tony Stewart is the only driver to win a Winston Cup race at the 1.5-mile flat oval, winning the inaugural event in 1999 and defending the victory last year. Stewart qualified 22nd.