It has been an extremely busy week for Miller Lite Dodge driver Rusty Wallace leading up to today's opening action here at Bristol Motor Speedway.

Rusty left North Carolina mid-afternoon on Monday, headed for Texas. He participated in the Dodge Media Teleconference on Tuesday morning, and then spent the remainder of the day working with Penske teammate Brendan Gaughan and his Busch Series driver Billy Parker with their testing at Texas Motor Speedway.

Rusty and his Larry Carter-led Miller Lite Dodge team tested at Texas all day Wednesday. Then yesterday, Rusty could be found down in New Orleans, participating as a featured guest at the Miller Brewing Company national sales convention.

Rusty already had his game face on here this morning a good half hour before the 11:20 a.m. practice session began. His team tested here last week with their brand new PC-73 Miller Lite Dodge and he has high expectations for success here this weekend.

"I don't know how good we'll be in qualifying here today - we weren't that great in qualifying trim here at the test - but we'll be really good with the race setup," Rusty told PRN Radio's Brett McMillan just prior to the start of practice. "The weather looks like we could get hit by showers here in the morning and that'd be just fine if we didn't get to practice in race trim."

Jeff Gordon was fast right out of the box when the practice began, turning in a 15.009-second lap and making folks wonder if Ryan Newman's 14.910-second track qualifying record might be in jeopardy.

As it would turn out, that lap was the fastest turned in all of practice. At the end of the session, it was Gordon's lap atop the practice speed chart. Dale Earrnhardt Jr.'s 15.040 was second, with Greg Biffle's 15.054 third, Elliott Sadler's 15.088 fourth and rookie Kasey Kahne's 15.097 fifth.

Rusty whittled his fast time down to a 15.168, which was 14th fastest at the end of the session.

Joe Nemechek will be the first of 45 drivers expected to make runs against the clock in the 3:05 p.m. time trial session. Rusty is scheduled out 10th.

When qualifying began, it was Sadler, out fourth, who put up a 15.116-second lap for everyone to shoot at. Rusty not only shot, but he blew it away with his 14.982 (128.074 mph), but his time at the point was short lived. Newman, three drivers later, clocked in with a 14.954 (128.313 mph) to take the top spot.

Newman then had to watch as the remaining 31 drivers took their shot at knocking him off the pole. Biffle was a threat with his 14.970 and Gordon came closest with his 14.957, but when the dust had settled, it was Newman claiming his third pole of the year here today.

Newman and Gordon make up the front row, with Biffle and Rusty going from Row No. 2. Kahne and Jamie McMurray are on the third row, with Gaughan (a lap of 15.064 seconds/127.377 mph) and Michael Waltrip in the fourth row and Sadler and Johnny Sauter rounding out the top 10 qualifiers

"It was a great day for the Penske teams here today," Rusty told a reporter for the Bristol newspaper after the dust had settled. "All three teams start in the top 10 and we'll just try to all build on that momentum and take it on into the race."

Sunday's Food City 500 has a 1:00 p.m. EST starting time and features live coverage by FOX-TV and PRN Radio.

RUSTY WALLACE (No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Intrepid) - "That was a good lap. It's the first time I've run a lap under 15 seconds here. We had a real good test, and we've got the three Penske Dodges in the top 10, so hopefully we'll all have a good day on Sunday. I said up here last week when we were testing that I didn't think this new car would be a great qualifier, but it would really race well and I hope that's true because she really responded well even in the qualifying trim. We're really looking forward to the race here on Sunday. We need a good run to get the momentum swinging back in out corner after the last couple of weeks and this is the perfect place to get that done. We'll be in good shape in the race, I think"