Gordon takes Talladega Cup pole
Nextel Cup points leader Jeff Gordon claimed his 60th career pole (and his third of 2007) today at Talladega Superspeedway during qualifying for the Aaron's 499
Gordon was the first car on track for qualifying, setting a fastest lap of 49.857 seconds at an average speed of 192.069 mph. His lap was later matched by Daytona pole-sitter David Gilliland, who will share the front row with him.
"I'm very excited, we had never won a pole here at Talladega," said Gordon.
"I wasn't really expecting it today. I knew we had a great race car that we were working on yesterday, but we didn't make any qualifying runs and I really expected some guys to beat us.
"This is Talladega and anybody can win the race from any position on the grid. It's great to start up front but that certainly is not going to guarantee anything."
Gilliland, who started from pole at this track last year in the autumn event, was able to replicate his form from Daytona in the No.38 Yates Ford Fusion, underlining the good power his car has under the hood.
Robert Yates Racing teammate Ricky Rudd, who was also on the front row at the restrictor plate season-opener rounded up the top five behind the Chevrolets of Denny Hamlin and two-time Talladega winner Sterling Marlin.
Kenny Wallace was the fastest among the drivers who needed to make the field based on their qualifying speed and will line up sixth on the starting grid. Also making the field and starting together from the fifth row will be Evernham's Scott Riggs and Boris Said.
David Reutimann emerged as the fastest Toyota in 14th, bumping boss Michael Waltrip out of the field in the last minute despite running the 20th fastest speed of the session. Jeremy Mayfield also made the cut in his Bill Davis Racing Camry and will start from 18th.
Juan Pablo Montoya qualified 26th for his Nextel Cup debut at Talladega, and shrugged off the result which he claims will be meaningless once the drafting starts in tomorrow's race.
"It's qualifying. It doesn't say anything, does it?" Montoya said. "It doesn't mean anything here. We'll wait and see what happens. I think we've got a decent car. It's an impound race and you want to have a good race car. It doesn't matter where you start."
Jeff Burton, who runs second in the points, had his worst qualifying of the year and will start the race from the last row of the grid.
Dale Jarrett was slowest of all 52 cars that qualified, but will take the last spot on the grid again using his last available provisional of the year. From the next race onwards he will have to make the field based on his qualifying speed.
Nine drivers failed to qualify, including Waltrip, both the Red Bull cars of Brian Vickers - last year's fall event winner at Talladega - and A.J. Allmendinger, plus the the No. 22 entry of Dave Blaney, who qualified second for today's Busch event.
Ken Schrader, Mike Wallace, Kevin Lepage, John Andretti and Mike Bliss will also go home without making the race.
Qualifying times:
Pos Driver Make Time 1. Jeff Gordon Chevrolet 49.857 2. David Gilliland Ford 49.857 3. Denny Hamlin Chevrolet 49.992 + 0.135 4. Sterling Marlin Chevrolet 50.130 + 0.273 5. Ricky Rudd Ford 50.156 + 0.299 6. Kenny Wallace Chevrolet 50.160 + 0.303 7. Casey Mears Chevrolet 50.192 + 0.335 8. Jimmie Johnson Chevrolet 50.200 + 0.343 9. Scott Riggs Dodge 50.277 + 0.420 10. Boris Said Ford 50.296 + 0.439 11. David Ragan Ford 50.296 + 0.439 12. Greg Biffle Ford 50.319 + 0.462 13. Kyle Busch Chevrolet 50.338 + 0.481 14. David Reutimann Toyota 50.346 + 0.489 15. Ward Burton Chevrolet 50.353 + 0.496 16. Carl Edwards Ford 50.357 + 0.500 17. Matt Kenseth Ford 50.360 + 0.503 18. Jeremy Mayfield Toyota 50.374 + 0.517 19. Paul Menard Chevrolet 50.379 + 0.522 20. David Stremme Dodge 50.407 + 0.550 21. Johnny Sauter Chevrolet 50.416 + 0.559 22. Regan Smith Chevrolet 50.457 + 0.600 23. Kyle Petty Dodge 50.476 + 0.619 24. Juan Montoya Dodge 50.489 + 0.632 25. Jamie McMurray Ford 50.496 + 0.639 26. Kurt Busch Dodge 50.497 + 0.640 27. Tony Raines Chevrolet 50.507 + 0.650 28. Ryan Newman Dodge 50.552 + 0.695 29. Reed Sorenson Dodge 50.607 + 0.750 30. Kasey Kahne Dodge 50.684 + 0.827 31. J.J. Yeley Chevrolet 50.701 + 0.844 32. Tony Stewart Chevrolet 50.754 + 0.897 33. Joe Nemechek Chevrolet 50.803 + 0.946 34. Jeff Green Chevrolet 50.815 + 0.958 35. Bobby Labonte Dodge 50.822 + 0.965 36. Dale Earnhardt Jr. Chevrolet 50.831 + 0.974 37. Martin Truex Jr. Chevrolet 50.836 + 0.979 38. Robby Gordon Ford 50.854 + 0.997 39. Elliott Sadler Dodge 51.123 + 1.266 40. Clint Bowyer Chevrolet 51.181 + 1.324 41. Kevin Harvick Chevrolet 51.241 + 1.384 42. Jeff Burton Chevrolet 51.324 + 1.467 43. Dale Jarrett Toyota 51.581 + 1.724 Did not qualify: Michael Waltrip Toyota Brian Vickers Toyota Dave Blaney Toyota A.J.Allmendinger Toyota Ken Schrader Ford Mike Wallace Dodge Kevin Lepage Chevrolet John Andretti Dodge Mike Bliss Dodge
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