Labonte, Stewart nab front-row starts for Sirius 400

BROOKLYN, Mich. -- Bobby Labonte won the pole, and teammate Tony Stewart took the other front-row position in qualifying Friday at Michigan International Speedway.

Stewart put up a lap of 189.464 mph for Sunday's Sirius Satellite Radio 400. But Labonte knocked the other Joe Gibbs Racing Chevrolet off the top spot by going 190.365.

Labonte broke his own 3-year-old race qualifying record of 189.883. It was well shy of the track qualifying mark of 191.149, set in August of the same year by Dale Earnhardt Jr.

The result had Stewart, the winner last Sunday at Pocono Raceway, shaking his head over Labonte's improvement from practice to qualifying.

"I'm still trying to figure out how he does what he does," the Winston Cup champion said. "He's the only guy I know that can constantly go out there every week and pick up six-tenths" of a second.

"I walked down during practice. He was quick time and we were the second-quickest time. He was sitting in the car on jack stands and I said, 'Are you doing your normal deal of going out there and picking up three-quarters of a second during your timed lap? If you are, I'm not going to work on my car anymore. I'm wasting my time down here and hanging my neck out for nothing.'"

Stewart said Labonte assured him he wasn't going to do that.

"Instead, he just gets six-tenths. I couldn't run anywhere close to what he ran," Stewart said.

Earnhardt, who qualified at 189.091, giving Chevrolet a sweep of the first three spots, echoed Stewart, but gave Labonte an even bigger edge.

"The thing about Bobby is that he always has ... seven-tenths saved up somewhere," Earnhardt said. "And he only uses as much of that seventh-tenths that he needs to. ... He's so good at driving his car that he knows what he needs to do."

The actual different in time was 0.18-seconds, but a tenth is a lot in a qualifying session in which the top 42 drivers are separated by less than 1 second.

Rookie Christian Fittipaldi, qualifying for his first race since replacing John Andretti as driver of the No. 43 Petty Enterprises Dodge, barely made the field. He was 36th fastest, the last of the positions determined by speed.

Compton captures pole for Busch tour's Meijer 300

SPARTA, Ky. -- Stacy Compton won the pole and set a track record in NASCAR Busch Series qualifying Friday at Kentucky Speedway.

Compton took the top starting position for tonight's Meijer 300 at 176.384 mph. The former Winston Cup driver got around the 1 1/2-mile oval in 30.615 seconds.

The previous record of 174.831 mph was set last year by Scott Riggs.

Junqueira earns front-row start in CART Grand Prix

MONTEREY, Calif. -- Bruno Junqueira won his first provisional CART pole this season, twisting around the Laguna Seca road course Friday at 115.031 mph.

Junqueira is assured of being one of two cars on the front row for Sunday's Grand Prix of Monterey, although a faster driver today could take the pole.

Plan to help low-budget F1 teams runs out of gas

MONTREAL -- Plans to create a "fighting fund" to help low-budget Formula One teams remain competitive are apparently off, triggering allegations Friday of broken promises and back-stabbing.

The losers in the battle of big-money teams vs. the underdog is the Minardi -- which ultimately could be run out of the sport -- and F1, which is trying to create balance in its series.

-- From wire reports