Watkins Glen, N.Y. ? Ricky Rudd didn’t let the distraction of his impending departure from his team slow him down Friday. He won the pole at Watkins Glen International.

For him, there are no lingering questions about 2003, which he says is enabling him to concentrate more on finishing strong this year.

Ricky Rudd leaves leaves his race car after winning the pole with a 122.696 mph clocking during Friday's qualifying for Sunday's Winston Cup at the Glen road race.

“The one thing we do know is there’s not a place for me at Robert Yates Racing next year, so we’re going to move on,” Rudd said. “There’s a lot strings attached to where we’re going and I think we’ll make an announcement in about a week.”

Rudd said the pole for Sunday’s Winston Cup race proves that the differences he has had with Yates and crew chief Michael “Fatback” McSwain can be put aside at the race track. Rudd said his first pole on the track was no certainty.

“We were a little off in practice, but I think the track came to us,” Rudd said after turning a lap at 122.696 mph in a Ford.

Michael Waltrip qualified second in a Chevrolet at 122.635, while the Pontiac of Tony Stewart, placed on probation for the rest of the season earlier this week for an altercation with a photographer last Sunday at the Brickyard 400, was third at 122.485.

“I’ve got a lot of personal issues, but the team has worked hard and deserves a victory,” Stewart said.

Rudd said a change in air pressure before qualifying proved decisive in his run around the 2.45-mile road course. On Sunday, Rudd will try for his third career victory at the serpentine layout.

Two months ago, driving the same Ford, he won for the second time in his career on NASCAR’s other road course, in Sonoma, Calif.

Rudd also won twice on the defunct road course in Riverside, Calif., and a victory here Sunday would match defending race champion Jeff Gordon’s Winston Cup record of seven.

“After I made my run, I was a little disappointed because the car drove so well,” Rudd explained. “Then they came on the radio and told me I won the pole.

“We were playing a little catchup today, and we needed to make a few changes.”

Waltrip had a nearly flawless run on the slick track.

“I made a big mistake in the esses and got sideways and had to back off the gas,” he said.

But he knew what to do the rest of the way around the 11-turn circuit in the Finger Lakes region of upstate New York.