PRACTICE INFORMATION:

After a week off last weekend, Rusty Wallace and his Miller Lite Dodge team are here at Las Vegas Motor Speedway hoping to continue from where they left off two weeks ago.

Rusty and his Larry Carter-led team qualified fourth and finished seventh two weeks ago at Rockingham. The qualifying effort was the best since last June at Dover. In the race, Rusty ran in the top five all day long until a slow pit stop late in the race helped drop him back to the seventh-place finish.

"The guys did a helluva job at Rockingham and I'm so proud of all of them," Rusty told reporter Mike Snow in the garage area here at LVMS this morning. "We showed so much promise - ran up front all day long and had tremendous pit stops throughout the race until the very end. When the day was done, we had a lot of positive to come out of it all. It certainly gives us something to build on out here and hopefully for the rest of the season."

Rusty was "on-location" here at the track early today and there was a very important reason for that. This weekend marks the debut of his new Busch Series team and he wanted to lend all the help possible to driver Billy Parker, crew chief Blake Bainbridge and team manager Barry Dodson. Rusty played "coach" during the morning practice and there were a lot of smiling faces as Billy clocked in with the second-fastest lap of the session. (Later in qualifying, he was faced with being the first driver to take to the track. He turned in a lap good enough for the 15th starting spot here tomorrow afternoon.)

But at 11:15 a.m., Rusty made the quick change from the team owner's role to the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup driver's role for the two-hour practice session.

Jeremy Mayfield, who was fastest out here in the January test session, was fastest after the first hour of practice had concluded. His lap of 31.106 was followed closely by Jeff Gordon's 31.207 and Kurt Busch's 31.208. Rusty's Penske Racing teammate Ryan Newman was fourth with a 31.237, Bobby Labonte was fifth with a 31.449 and Rusty stacked up sixth with a 31.510.

The action during the final minutes of practice was fast and furious, as Mayfield's Evernham Dodge teammate Kasey Kahne clocked in with a 30.928 with 15 minutes remaining. Newman was hampered somewhat by Kyle Petty in making his final "banzai" run of the session, mustering only a 31.534 in his last visit to the track prior to qualifying.

Rusty was hoping to pick up speed on the second lap of his final run. After turning a 31.424 on his first lap, he encountered the slowing car of Kirk Shelmerdine entering turn three of the final lap. That slowed him down to a 32.019.

When practice ended, it was rookie Kahne atop the speed chart, with teammate Mayfield second, Jeff Gordon third, Busch fourth and Newman fifth with his earlier lap. Rusty was 11th on the list.

Rusty was 18th of 45 drivers attempting to qualify. Making things a little more dramatic is the fact that Mayfield is third out, while Newman goes out third from last and Busch second from last.

Mayfield was out as scheduled and turned in a 30.987 to hold the pole until Kahne went out ninth and backed up his practice performance by turning in a 30.874 (174.904 mph).

Kahne's lap would hold off all the challenges for the remainder of the session, as Rusty clocked in with a 31.322, Gaughan with a 31.066 and Newman with a 30.974.

Kahne picked up his first career pole and Busch wound up second. Rookie Brian Vickers, Jamie McMurray, Newman and Mayfield complete Sunday's top-five starters. Rusty will go 21st on the starting grid.

Sunday's UAW-Chrysler/Daimler 400 has a 12:00 noon starting time (3:00 p.m. EST) and features live media coverage by FOX-TV and PRN Radio.

RUSTY WALLACE (No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Intrepid) - "I was a little looser than I wanted to be. I wanted to be a little tighter, and I think that hurt my speed. It was a good, solid run, and I think we've got something for 'em on Sunday," Rusty said of his qualifying run "We'll get her really dialed in here in practice in the morning and be ready to get after it on Sunday. I think the fans are in for a great race. The tires are wearing and you'll see a lot of passing and side-by-side racing. We look to be up front racing for the win. Larry (Carter, crew chief) and the guys have been practicing the pit stops and I am confident they'll really be on their game on Sunday. It could be a super day here for the Miller Lite Dodge."