LONG POND, Pa. – Ken Schrader went out looking for a little excitement, and found it. Now, with another Pocono pole to his credit, he’d like to finish the job.

“Hopefully, this is the start of a bunch of good stuff,” the victory-starved driver said Friday after a qualifying lap of 163.375 mph in a Chevrolet Monte Carlo. “But I ain’t holding my breath.”

The pole for Sunday’s UAW-GM Teamwork 500 was Schrader’s record fifth on the inside front row at the 2.5-mile Pocono International Raceway. Why, he was asked, is he still winless at the triangular-shaped layout?

“We go to 15-16-17 tracks … I’ve only won at four of them, so it ain’t like this is our only concern,” Schrader said.

Maine native Ricky Craven didn’t qualify, but will get another chance to do so today.

In addition to a winner’s share of a $1 million purse, Schrader was reminded of the accumulated bonus of $83,360 that goes to the next Winston Cup pole winner who backs it up in the race.

“I would pay $83,000 to win this race,” said Schrader, winless since 1991 – a span of 120 starts.

He doesn’t think the 18th pole of his career, but first since the 1993 Southern 500, will serve as a remedy.

“This stuff don’t mean much,” he said. “We need to start winning some races.”

And Pocono could be the spot.

“I like this place,” he said. “This is a place where you can just absolutely thrill yourself qualifying. Here, if you mess up, you just abort and have a bad lap.

“It’s not like Charlotte or Atlanta, where you can thrill yourself getting in and then you wreck.”

Schrader thought he had a chance to qualify high, but was surprised when he surpassed the 163.250 lap Mark Martin made in a Ford Thunderbird.

“I told them coming off the last turn that it was decent, but not decent enough,” Schrader said.

He was wrong and became the eighth driver to win a pole in 13 events this season.

Martin was not disappointed, just resigned to Schrader’s prowess on the track.

“Schrader always does that here,” Martin said. “He can qualify at this place better than anybody I know.”

Following Martin was Bobby Hamilton in a Pontiac at 162.955. Next came the Ford of Ricky Rudd at 162.805 and the Chevy of Jeff Gordon at 162.484.

Starting sixth will be Geoff Bodine, who won the pole last July for the second of Pocono’s two annual Winston Cup events. He also won the race in a Ford.

Darrell Waltrip, one of three drivers with three career poles at Pocono, wound up seventh on the grid. He was ahead of the Ford of Rusty Wallace, who fell short of the track-record lap of 164.588 he posted before winning the event a year ago.

The Ford of Morgan Shepherd and the Chevrolet of Bobby Labonte rounded out the top 10.