Fri May 2 17:30:24 2008

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Kahne captures Nationwide pole at RIR

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Richmond, VA (Sports Network) - Kasey Kahne won the pole for this evening's Lipton Tea 250 at the Richmond International Raceway. The No.9 Gillett Evernham Motorsports driver circled the 0.750-mile short track in 21.578 seconds (125.127 m.p.h.).

The pole victory was Kahne's first of the season and seventh of his Nationwide career. His last pole win in the series was Dover in 2005.

Starting alongside Kahne will be Carl Edwards. Edwards posted a time of 21.602 seconds.

Denny Hamlin (21.651) and Mark Green (21.659) will make up row two.

The 2008 Nationwide Series championship remains a three-way battle between Sprint Cup regulars Clint Bowyer, defending series champion Edwards and Kyle Busch. However, Busch continues to remain mum on whether he will compete in the series for the entire season.

"The consideration is there," Busch said. "But we're not letting anything out of the bag quite yet. I don't even know if there's anything in the bag."

Bowyer, the defending race winner, leads Edwards by 27 points and Busch by 39 points. He won last year's event by 1.483-seconds over Matt Kenseth

While the three Sprint Cup drivers are dominating the top of the charts, there are five Nationwide Series-only drivers in the top-10. Mike Bliss leads the quintet, which also includes Brad Keselowski, Jason Leffler, Mike Wallace and Bobby Hamilton Jr.

The race is schedule to drop the green flag tonight at 7:30 p.m. (et).