Yeley edges Johnson to take Michigan pole

J.J. Yeley won his first career Nextel Cup pole Friday at Michigan International Speedway, causing him to appreciate the 2-mile oval even more.

“This is one of my favorite race tracks,” he said. “It’s a lot of fun because it’s four and five grooves wide. It’s big, fast and a lot of fun.

“It gives me a lot of comfort when I’m driving and when you have that comfort, you drive harder.”

Yeley posted a lap of 38.399 seconds – at a speed of 187.505 mph – to edge Jimmie Johnson by a thousandth of a second.

“I don’t win many poles, so I hate to see opportunities fly by,” said Johnson, the defending Nextel Cup champion whose last pole was more than a year ago. “Qualifying is not my specialty, so I have to really commend my team.

“I’m better at racing than running by myself.”

Kyle Busch was third at 186.829, showing he was not too distracted after Hendrick Motorsports chose to replace him earlier in the week with Dale Earnhardt Jr. on next year’s team.

Earnhardt will start Sunday’s Citizens Bank 400 race 23rd in the 43-car field.

Michael Waltrip will race for just the third time in 15 races.

Interest in Busch rises

The car owners are lining up to talk to Kyle Busch, and the overwhelming interest likely alleviated any hurt feelings he might have had following his ouster from Hendrick Motorsports.

Busch was pushed out of Hendrick’s elite organization when the team hired Dale Earnhardt Jr. to replace him starting next season. It put Busch on the open market, and there’s a flood of interest in the talented 22-year-old.

“I’m just kind of flattered and exited by all the interest and phone calls that we’ve gotten,” Busch said at Michigan International Speedway.

“I’m interested in talking to anybody who wants to talk … whoever has an open seat, let’s go. Let’s sit down. Let’s have dinner.”

Dale Earnhardt Inc., Evernham Motorsports, Ginn Racing and Robert Yates Racing have all expressed interest in Busch, making him the hottest free agent in NASCAR now that Earnhardt is off the market.

It’s helped take the sting off his split from Hendrick, which was finalized earlier this week when Hendrick agreed to a five-year deal with Junior.

Busch’s contract with Hendrick ran through 2008, and both sides had been working on an extension for some time.