The Associated Press

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - The same No. 30 Chevrolet that won the pole for the Daytona 500 will be out front for the start of the Pepsi 400. The only difference this time is Steve Park is its driver.

Jeff Green, at the wheel of the Richard Childress Racing entry in February, was fired in May and replaced by Park, fired the same week by Dale Earnhardt Inc.

Park, who won a pole earlier this year at California Speedway while still in the No. 1 DEI car, now driven by Green, bumped four-time Winston Cup champion Jeff Gordon off the top spot Thursday night with a lap of 184.752 mph.

RCR teammate Kevin Harvick nearly pushed aside Park, instead shuffling Gordon to third with a lap of 184.642 that was just 0.029-seconds slower than Park's.

"We all know the story how we lost one job and acquired another job," Park said. "I'm just so happy now."

Harvick was happy for Park.

"It's great for the whole organization," Harvick said. "We're first and second, and you can't really ask for anything more than that."

Sterling Marlin was fourth at 184.411, followed by the drivers who will go into Saturday night's race as the favorites - DEI teammates Dale Earnhardt Jr. at 184.381 and Michael Waltrip at 184.287.

Waltrip is looking for his third straight Winston Cup victory at Daytona.

"We're a little disappointed that we didn't run what we had run in practice," Waltrip said. "The car just didn't quite zing like it did in practice. ... But we qualified sixth or seventh here last year and we were able to get to the front."

Earnhardt, who has won five of the last eight races at Daytona and Talladega, the two tracks where NASCAR requires horsepower-sapping restrictor plates, said he was happy enough with his qualifying speed.

"We finally got this qualifying out of the way and we can get into some drafting, racing in practice and what not, and just try to keep all of the sides on the (car) and find ourselves in Victory Lane if we're lucky," he said.

BUSCH SERIES: Dale Earnhardt Jr. won the pole for tonight's Winn-Dixie 250, his first Busch pole of the season.

Earnhardt's was the last of 48 cars to qualify and ran a lap at 186.308 mph to bump Kasey Kahne off the pole.

CART: Paul Tracy, the season series points leader, won the provisional pole for Saturday's Cleveland Grand Prix. Tracy, who won the season's first three events, turned a lap in 58.40 seconds, nearly one-half second ahead of his Players' teammate and defending champion Patrick Carpentier (58.86). Rookie Sebastien Bourdais was third (59.16).

FORMULA ONE: French police impounded the BAR team's cars following a court order seeking payment of an old debt. The seizure threatens the participation of the team's drivers, Jenson Button and Jacques Vinneneuve, in this weekend's French Grand Prix.