Auto racing: Kahne rallies late at Bristol

Kasey Kahne won the pole at Bristol Motor Speedway on Friday, edging rival Dodge driver Juan Pablo Montoya for the top starting spot for tonight’s race in Bristol, Tenn.

Kahne ran a lap of 119.805 mph to win the pole, the first since Montreal Canadiens owner George Gillett Jr. became co-owner of Kahne’s team. It was Kahne’s first pole since Las Vegas in March, 20 races ago.

“A great start to the weekend, we need stuff like this to go on. It’s been kind of a rough season,” said Kahne, who won six races last season but is winless this year and 27th in the points.

Montoya was second at 119.447 in his second trip to Bristol’s tricky .533-mile bullring.

Jamie McMurray was third, and rookie David Ragan was fourth for Ford and Dave Blaney was fifth in a Toyota.

Carl Edwards was sixth, followed by Ryan Newman, Ricky Rudd, Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Burton.

Kahne win Busch race

Kasey Kahne passed Ryan Newman with eight laps to go, then held off several charges from Jason Leffler to win the Busch Series race at Bristol, Tenn.

The race was marred by a NASCAR scoring error against Kyle Busch that cost him a chance to run for the win. Busch was penalized with 77 laps to go because NASCAR said he violated the pit-road commitment line. He had to forfeit his second-place position, a penalty NASCAR later said was incorrect.

“I don’t know that I hit the line – I don’t think I did,” Busch said.

Sponsor fight heats up

The fight between NASCAR and AT&T heated up when the telecommunications giant refused to use a paint scheme or logos on Jeff Burton’s car at Bristol Motor Speedway.

NASCAR says only Cingular and Alltel, two companies involved in the sport before the Sprint Nextel deal, can compete. AT&T believes its 2006 merger with Cingular allows the company to participate.

Champ Car

Will Power was the fastest in qualifying for the Champ Car Belgian Grand Prix at Zolder, Belgium, finishing in 1 minute, 13.810 seconds.