DOVER, Del. — Jeff Green, a winner the last time he drove a Busch series car at Dover International Speedway, won the pole Friday for the MBNA Platinum 200.

        It was the third Busch pole this season for the 2001 series champion, now a regular in NASCAR's Winston Cup series. It also was his second on The Monster Mile, where he won last September.

        “I think our chances of winning this thing tomorrow are pretty good,” Green said. “If we can just stay out of trouble, we've got the car to get the job done.”

        He certainly has had no problem being fast around the high-banked concrete oval. Green won the pole for this race last June, but wound up 29th.

        Green, a winner last week in Concord, N.C., took the MBNA.com 200 last September after starting second.

        On Friday, he got his Chevrolet around the track in 23.174 seconds at 155.374 mph. That fell just short of Mike Skinner's 2000 track qualifying record of 155.392.

        But Green wasn't really shooting for the pole, saying he spent a great deal of time on his racing setup.

        “We didn't really work on it very much,” he said of his qualifying trim. “We just tried something at end of practice that worked real well.”

        Second-fastest was Bobby Hamilton Jr., who got his first career victory last month in Loudon, N.H. His Ford did a fast lap of 154.739 to lock up the outside of the front row for the $854,039 race.

        Hamilton was satisfied to start up front, but thought he could have gone even faster.

        “I had a lot of power, the car was just loose,” Hamilton said. “You can't complain when your car is ill-handling and we ended up where we did, so we'll take it.”

        Greg Biffle wrapped up the third spot on the grid with a run of 154.017 in his Ford. Like Hamilton, he was satisfied but not delighted.

        “It was a little bit slicker than I thought it would be,” Biffle said. “We couldn't keep the throttle down long enough.”

        Jamie McMurray, a second-year Busch driver making only his third start at Dover, qualified a career-best fourth. His Chevy went around at 153.905.

        The fifth spot went to Scott Riggs, like Green a two-time winner this season. Riggs, driving for the Ford in which Green won the championship last year, had a fast lap of 153.846.

        Sixth was 1995 Dover Busch winner Mike McLaughlin, whose Pontiac went 153.695.

        David Green, Stacy Compton, Kevin Lepage and Jimmy Spencer completed the top-10. Series points leader Jason Keller will start 11th.

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