Talladega qualifying: Stacey fastest of the slow

It was the slowest pole in the 32-year history of the 2.66-mile superspeedway. The previous slowest was 184.926 miles per hour set by David Pearson in the 1974 Alabama 500.

"Do whatever it takes," Compton said. "It's the slowest, but it will probably be the closest at the end of the day. Dodge is going to punch a pretty big hole in the air and hopefully, we can have a pretty good day.

"We knew Dale Jarrett and Ricky Rudd would be tough, but we put in 110 percent and that was about as good as we could do. Hats off to Dodge. After the rules change, we didn't know how we would stack up. We made some changes after the wind tunnel. Dodge has done a good job in developing these cars. This is early in the year and it shows that Dodge can come back in this sport and be competitive. I think will be a lot better."

It was the first pole for Melling Racing since Elliott was the fastest qualifier in 1991.

The top three positions were Dodge drivers. Sterling Marlin was second at 184.576 mph, followed by fellow Dodge driver Bill Elliott at 184.009 mph. Ford drivers Ricky Craven (183.899 mph) and Mark Martin (183.864 mph) round out the top five.

Compton hopes to give Dodge its first victory since rejoining NASCAR Winston Cup racing this season. The last Dodge victory was Neil Bonnett at Ontario Motor Speedway on November 20, 1977.

NASCAR instituted some aerodynamic changes to the Ford and Dodge cars for this race last month. The changes benefitted Ford, but were a disadvantage for Dodge. But all that did was make those teams work harder to regain an advantage.

"NASCAR changed the rules and put more wicker (roof strip) on the top," Marlin said. "We thought we had to work on the car and try some new things. The rules changes made us a few tenths slower in the test, so we worked hard on the car and gained two-tenths. All the credit in the world goes back to the crew.

"We've been close all year, had the same car we had at Daytona. But, you can have the fastest car and still finish 15th, it depends on who goes by you. We'll take what NASCAR gives us and try to make the best of it."

Marlin and Elliott are both former winners at Talladega, but are very apprehensive about Sunday's race.

"It's going to be packs and packs of cars on top of each other," Marlin said. "It's going to be a madhouse. We're all looking for answers. We made 186 laps last time here and nothing happened. We can do it again."

Ken Schrader was the last driver to make the race based on qualifying speed and will start 36th. Johnny Benson Jr., Elliott Sadler, Ward Burton, Matt Kenseth, Jeremy Mayfield, Ron Hornaday and Mike Wallace all took provisional starting positions.

Among those missing the race were Kyle Petty, Kenny Wallace, Rick Mast, Hut Stricklin and Andy Hillenburg.

For full Talladega qualifying times, Click here for the qualifying result.