Rudd takes surprise pole

A week after 47-year-old Rusty Wallace broke a 106-race winless streak at Martinsville, Rudd, also 47, broke a 20-year streak for the Wood Brothers, his car owners. The Woods had not won a pole since March 1984 at Atlanta - a remarkable 630 races ago.

Rudd highlighted a boring, three hour time-trial session with a lap in 50.089sec (191.180mph), good enough to surpass Joe Nemechek for the front spot.

Surging to the front toward the end were obvious favorites Michael Waltrip and Dale Earnhardt Jr, who between them have won the past five races at this track and ten of the past 13 restricted races. Waltrip ended up second (50.143s) and Earnhardt third (50.311s). Oddly neither has won a pole at Talladega.

Rudd's best start this year had been 14th at Martinsville, and some wrote off his fast time in final practice as possibly the result of an unintended draft. Rudd did nothing to dispel that impression, albeit with a grin on his face.

"We didn't really know how fast we could go," Rudd admitted later. "We actually ran a little better than we did in practice. I wouldn't say I was surprised about it. I'm happy for it, but I figured we'd run a [50].10 and we ran a flat."

The consecutive top performances by veterans prompted questions. "You mean the old guys are getting it done the past couple of weeks?" Rudd laughed. "I watched Rusty in his interviews last week, and that was a pretty neat deal. He won that race hands-down. His hair isn't as white as mine, but I noticed he doesn't have quite as much hair on the top of his head that he used to have.

"I don't think age has anything to do with last week or this week, but it's pretty neat to see some of the older guys doing something."

The question perennially at the restricted tracks is whether there is any hope of beating the DEI cars. Rudd shrugged.

"The real world is a question mark," he said. "Somewhere along the line, whether it's this weekend or three years from now or five years from now, that dominance will stop and somebody else is going to win the race that day. Are we the guys to do that? I can't answer that. But somewhere along the way it will change."

The top-five run was a boost for rookie Riggs, whose No. 10 team has stumbled out of the blocks this year. Mark Martin was sixth, Dale Jarrett seventh, Jimmie Johnson eighth, Sterling Marlin ninth and Ward Burton 10th.