RUSTY QUALIFIES FOURTH AT DOVER
-Gunning For Fourth Career Dover Win In Sunday's MBNA 400-

After two straight weeks of racing at home, Rusty Wallace and his Larry Carter-led team headed here to Dover International Speedway in hopes of continuing their climb back into the top 10 in the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup point standings.

Rusty and his Miller Lite Dodge team finished 10th in last Sunday's Coca-Cola 600 at Lowe's Motor Speedway and climbed up a spot in the standings. While they moved up a spot, they fell out of the 400-point bracket which qualifies a team for the "playoffs" later in the season. They are now 417 points out of first, but they are more concerned now about posting more wins and top five finishes than the points.

"Right now we're really not focusing on anything but getting us some more wins, more top fives and top 10s," said Rusty, who now has one win, three top-five finishes and six top-10 finishes on the season, earlier this week. "But, you can't help keeping a watchful eye on that end of the deal (point standings) because it's so important to make the cut either by finishing in the top 10 or by closing the gap to less than 400.

"We have some great tracks coming up for us in the next few weeks and we're looking to put some more big numbers on the board beginning this weekend at Dover. If we can get the finishes we're confident that we'll be capable of getting the next few weeks, the points situation will take care of itself."

The first priority here at Dover today was getting qualified for Sunday's 400-lap, 400-mile battle.

The day began with advancing adverse weather conditions being the major topic being discussed in the garage area. The situation was such that Rusty, Larry and crew chose to use the final half of the day's two-hour practice session running race setups.

While Rusty's Penske Racing teammate Ryan Newman held the top spot through most of the session, it was Jeremy Mayfield clocking in with a 22.393-second lap in the final 15 minutes to top the speed chart at the end. Ryan's 22.494 was second, with Brian Vickers' 22.578 third, Kurt Busch's 22.618 fourth and Kasey Kahne's 22.709 fifth. Rusty was seventh-quickest with a 22.744.

The qualifying session began under threatening skies, with NASCAR officials calling a temporary halt to the action due to sprinkles after the first four cars had made their runs. Ryan was up on the wheel as he took to the track sixth in the order and turned in a 22.410-second (160.643 mph) lap to give the remaining competitors something to shoot at.

Michael Waltrip, out 10th in the order, clocked in with the second-fastest lap at the time on his first lap, but crashed hard into the Turn 2 wall on his second lap to again bring the action to a halt, this time for a lengthy cleanup.

Rookie Vickers, out 19th, gave Ryan and crew a scare by turning in a 22.427, which took the outside pole at the time.

But, it was Mayfield, out 23rd, who backed up his strong practice performance by running a new track qualifying record 22.288-second (161.522 mph) lap to turn all the heads. It broke Rusty's old record of 22.505 that he ran here in winning the pole in 1999.

None of the next 18 drivers came within three-tenths of Mayfield's lap until Rusty hit the track. He clocked in with a 22.470-second (160.214 mph) lap to grab the fourth spot.

Gaughan, out next-to-last, put the icing on the cake for the Penske Racing South contingent as he rallied back from practice to run a 22.522 (159.844 mph) and earn the fifth starting spot.

At the conclusion of the session, it was Mayfield picking up his first pole of the season and fourth of the year for Evernham Motorsports. Ryan starts Sunday's race on the outside pole, with Vickers third, Rusty fourth and Gaughan fifth. Elliott Sadler, Mark Martin, Waltrip, Jamie McMurray and Tony Stewart rounded out the top-10 qualifiers.

Sunday's MBNA 400 has a scheduled 1:00 p.m. EDT starting time with FX-TV and MRN Radio providing live coverage beginning at 12:30 p.m.