March 6, 1999 8:02 AM EST

LAS VEGAS (Ticker) -- Winston Cup drivers Mark Martin and Jeff Gordon will start from row for today's NASCAR Busch Series Sam's Town 300 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Martin won the 21st pole of his Busch Series career Friday with a lap at 165.715 miles per hour in a Ford Taurus. Gordon, who is starting his first Busch Series race since 1992, will start on the outside of the front row after running a lap at 165.330 mph in a Chevrolet Monte Carlo.

"Once again, my guys at Roush Racing have given me an excellent car," Martin said. "I couldn't do this without them."

With so much success as a NASCAR Winston Cup driver, Gordon was extremely pleased to qualify for the Busch field.

"It was a great feeling," Gordon said. "I went and drove the high-powered Winston Cup car and qualified that first. We did OK, but I think that helped me qualify my Busch car. And I'm hoping that on Saturday, the Busch race will actually help me for Sunday's race.

"This is great for me to go back and forth between these two cars. Things just continued to progress all day long. I feel like we've made about as good an effort as we could ask the first time out."

Busch Series regulars Lyndon Amick, Hank Parker Jr. and Andy Kirby round out the top five.

The track is hosting a Busch event for the third consecutive year. Jimmy Spencer is the defending champion and Jeff Green captured the inaugural event in 1997.

Green hold the record for the fastest race with an average speed of 114.153 miles per hour. Spencer's speed in winning last year was 114.129 mph.

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