Newman leaves it late at Martinsville.

Ryan Newman denied Jeff Gordon pole position at the half-mile Martinsville Speedway by putting in a late flying lap that secured the Penske Racing driver his fourth Bud Pole Award of the year.

Ryan Newman defied the Winston Cup rulebook once again as he scorched to his fifth career Bud Pole award on Friday at the tight half-mile flat Martinsville oval. The driver of the #12 Alltel Ford Taurus put down a lap at 20.397secs to knock defending Winston Cup Champion Jeff Gordon off top spot as he tries to stay in the Winston Cup points hunt.

Newman, who also set the pace during Friday morning's marathon two-hour practice session, went out 45th of the 48 cars in Bud Pole qualifying and beat Gordon's benchmark by two hundredths of a second on his second flying lap.

Gordon, who had held down top spot for the majority of the session despite an early draw, set a fastest lap of 20.420secs that remained good enough for a place on the outside of the front row for a race that he has to do well in if he has any chance of retaining his title.

Bill Elliott will start third in the leading Dodge Intrepid ahead of a much-improved Ward Burton in Bill Davis' Dodge and short-track ace and title dark-horse Rusty Wallace.

Joe Nemechek had a good day in the #25 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet to place the UAW-Delphi machine sixth while Jimmie Johnson, the final man out on track, made some major gains on his second lap to move the #48 Chevrolet into seventh starting spot.

The biggest cheer of the afternoon was left for Virginia native Hermie Sadler who powered his #02 Virginia Lottery Chevrolet to a best ever eighth on the grid ahead of Mike Skinner and Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Defending Old Dominion 500 winner Ricky Craven could do no better than 14th on the grid while Bobby Labonte, who won at Martinsville in the spring, faces a tough task on Sunday in order to repeat the feat after qualifying only 29th.

Winston Cup points leader Tony Stewart also faces a major task on Sunday after qualifying a distant 31st while the rest of the points players all crucially made it into the top 20.

Elsewhere, Ted Musgrave failed to back up his amazing fourth fastest time from practice but still comfortably made it into the starting field in the #07 Ultra Motorsports Dodge. The former Winston Cupper and current Craftsman Truck ace will line up in 17th overall while his Truck Series rival Mike Bliss will start 27th in the #40 Coors Light Dodge that Jamie McMurray drove to victory lane last week.

Taking Provisionals to make the grid were Michael Waltrip, Kyle Petty, Elliott Sadler, John Andretti, Geoffrey Bodine in the #23 Hills Bros. Dodge that Kenny Wallace will start 43rd in Sunday's race, Steve Grissom, a last minute substitute for the injured Jerry Nadeau and Hideo Fukuyama who makes it two out of two with the #66 Travis Carter Ford team.

Failing to make the cut were Brian Rose in the improving but still too slow Ware Racing Dodge, the luckless Carl Long in the Price Motorsports Dodge, Morgan Shepherd, Kirk Shelmerdine and NWC debutee Ryan McGlynn.