Busch wins pole for year-ending race

Pressure? What pressure?

Kurt Busch, last in the qualifying line and first in the NASCAR Nextel Cup points, waited out 54 other drivers Friday and won the pole for the season-ending Ford 400 at Homestead, Fla., which will determine the 2004 champion.

Busch goes into Sunday’s race at the front of the closest five-man championship battle in NASCAR history, leading runner-up Jimmie Johnson by 18 points and with Jeff Gordon, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Mark Martin all within 82 points of the top spot.

Busch, who isn’t known as a good qualifier, grinned and asked: “Is this Friday? I never knew we could do things like this on Friday.”

It’s the second consecutive week that the fourth-year cup driver will start from the top qualifying spot, though last week’s pole was handed to him as the points leader when time trials were rained out at Darlington. This one is the first pole Busch has won on the track since taking the top spot here in November 2002.

He went on to win that race, although the 1 1/2 -mile track at Homestead-Miami Speedway has since been reconfigured, with more banking in the turns.

Busch turned a lap of 179.319 mph, easily beating out the 179.307 of Greg Biffle for the third pole of his career.

“It was just one of those laps,” Busch said. “It’s really been a storybook effort so far in this championship chase.”

Johnson came to Homestead – the last race in NASCAR’s new 10-man, 10-race playoff-style championship – with a ton of momentum, having won four of the last five races to come from far off the pace and give himself a shot at the title. But his latest qualifying effort took away some of the steam he had built up.

While the other contenders qualified among the top 16, Johnson went out early and had a disastrous lap at 175.029. As driver after driver went around the track, Johnson and his No. 48 team watched their position drop lower and lower, finally stopping at 39th, which is where he will start in the 43-car field. It’s his worst qualifying effort since starting 34th on the road course in Sonoma, Calif., in June.

Johnson didn’t wait around to see the final result. His team covered his car with a tarp and he hurried out of the garage.

“The car was really, really loose,” was the only thing he said before walking quickly to his team’s hauler.

Four-time series champion Gordon, Johnson’s teammate and 21 points behind Busch, will start fifth Sunday, with fourth-place Earnhardt, 72 points out, starting 16th and Martin, 82 points behind, in the 11th spot.

Hamilton takes title; Kahne wins again

It was a big day for Dodge at Homestead-Miami Speedway, with Bobby Hamilton wrapping up the NASCAR truck series championship and Kasey Kahne driving to his second straight victory.

“This is huge,” Hamilton said as he celebrated with his crew and family. “I really wanted to win it for Dodge because they’ve done so much for us.”

At 47, owner-driver Hamilton became the oldest champion of the Craftsman series and gave Dodge its first NASCAR title since Richard Petty won the stock car championship in 1975.

Kahne, the top rookie in the Nextel Cup series, became the first driver to win his first two starts in the truck series, adding this victory in a Jim Smith-owned Ram to the one last Saturday at Darlington.

Honda to take stake in BAR-Honda F1

Honda Motor Co. will own a stake in BAR-Honda for the first time since the Japanese automaker rejoined Formula One racing in 2000.

The Tokyo-based company didn’t say how much it would spend for the 45 percent stake in the team, which is based in Brackley, Britain.

But the investment marks a commitment to devote staff, technology and funding to the team, Honda said.

British American Tobacco will own the remaining 55 percent.