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Jeff Gordon takes third NASCAR Sprint Cup pole position of 2015

Jeff Gordon stormed to the third pole position of his NASCAR Sprint Cup farewell season as the revised superspeedway qualifying format made its debut at Talladega

Jeff Gordon stormed to the third pole position of his NASCAR Sprint Cup farewell season as the revised superspeedway qualifying format made its debut at Talladega.

The destructive session at Daytona - where Gordon had also been on pole - led to NASCAR dropping its group knockout qualifying system on superspeedways and returning to single-car qualifying.

But unlike the pre-2014 version of that system, cars now took to the track as the previous driver was finishing his flying lap, and a knockout element was retained, with the fastest 12 in round one going into a pole shootout.

Round two was being decided by thousandths of a second until last man to run Gordon put in a 49.160s, 194.793mph lap to depose Hendrick team-mate Kasey Kahne by a relatively huge 0.281s margin.

Qualifying had looked like being a Hendrick Chevrolet rout for a while, but Wood Brothers newcomer Ryan Blaney disrupted that formation by putting his Ford third on the grid.

Hendrick pair Dale Earnhardt Jr and Jimmie Johnson took fourth and fifth ahead of Hendrick customer Tony Stewart's Stewart-Haas Chevy.

Stewart was the only one of the SHR drivers to show strongly, with last week's Richmond winner Kurt Busch down in 19th, and champion Kevin Harvick only 24th, one place ahead of team-mate Danica Patrick.

Neither Penske driver made the pole shootout, with Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano back in 15th and 21st, while after its drivers led both Friday practice sessions, the best Roush Fenway could achieve was 20th for Greg Biffle.

STARTING GRID:

Pos Driver Team Car Time Gap
1 Jeff Gordon Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 49.160s -
2 Kasey Kahne Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 49.441s 0.281s
3 Ryan Blaney Wood Brothers Racing Ford 49.460s 0.300s
4 Dale Earnhardt Jr. Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 49.463s 0.303s
5 Jimmie Johnson Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 49.507s 0.347s
6 Tony Stewart Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet 49.509s 0.349s
7 Paul Menard Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet 49.511s 0.351s
8 Matt Kenseth Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota 49.525s 0.365s
9 David Ragan Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota 49.615s 0.455s
10 Clint Bowyer Michael Waltrip Racing Toyota 49.666s 0.506s
11 Casey Mears Germain Racing Chevrolet 49.693s 0.533s
12 Sam Hornish Jr. Richard Petty Motorsports Ford 49.786s 0.626s
13 Kyle Larson Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet 49.670s -
14 Austin Dillon Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet 49.671s -
15 Brad Keselowski Team Penske Ford 49.674s -
16 Brian Scott Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet 49.677s -
17 Denny Hamlin Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota 49.684s -
18 Ryan Newman Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet 49.690s -
19 Kurt Busch Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet 49.699s -
20 Greg Biffle Roush Fenway Racing Ford 49.701s -
21 Joey Logano Team Penske Ford 49.714s -
22 Carl Edwards Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota 49.723s -
23 Michael Waltrip Michael Waltrip Racing Toyota 49.828s -
24 Kevin Harvick Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet 49.862s -
25 Danica Patrick Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet 49.918s -
26 Trevor Bayne Roush Fenway Racing Ford 49.946s -
27 Jamie McMurray Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet 49.972s -
28 Aric Almirola Richard Petty Motorsports Ford 49.975s -
29 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Roush Fenway Racing Ford 49.984s -
30 Landon Cassill Hillman Smith Motorsports Chevrolet 50.006s -
31 A.J. Allmendinger JTG Daugherty Racing Chevrolet 50.070s -
32 Bobby Labonte Go FAS Racing Ford 50.090s -
33 Brendan Gaughan Premium Motorsports Chevrolet 50.132s -
34 Josh Wise Phil Parsons Racing Ford 50.200s -
35 Justin Allgaier HScott Motorsports Chevrolet 50.205s -
36 Martin Truex Jr. Furniture Row Racing Chevrolet 50.211s -
37 Alex Bowman Tommy Baldwin Racing Chevrolet 50.235s -
38 Chris Buescher Front Row Motorsports Ford 50.292s -
39 David Gilliland Front Row Motorsports Ford 50.327s -
40 Michael Annett HScott Motorsports Chevrolet 50.361s -
41 Cole Whitt Front Row Motorsports Ford 50.466s -
42 J.J. Yeley BK Racing Toyota 50.602s -
43 Matt DiBenedetto BK Racing Toyota 50.707s -
44 Michael McDowell Leavine Family Racing Ford 50.548s -
45 Jeb Burton BK Racing Toyota 50.672s -

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