Gordon on pole at California

The California-born driver, by far the most successful of the field with three wins at the track, was one of only five drivers breaking into the 185 mph mark with a speed of 185.753 mph.

"Winning poles is something that we've prided ourselves on year after year, but they've been coming a lot further and fewer between them," Gordon said. "I really thought that someone was going to beat us because we went so early."

Despite being one of the early qualifiers, Gordon was able to make the most of his run in the No. 24 Dupont Chevrolet, to get his second career pole at California. However, no driver has won from pole in the past at the two-mile oval.

"Everytime you can start up-front it's a plus, but does it matter? Does it guarantee you anything? No it doesn't," Gordon said. "We've had some great race cars in the past when we've started deeper in the field and were able to get to the front.

"There's just a lot of important things that come with [the pole] but it just doesn't guarantee you anything."

Kasey Kahne, who was one of the latest runners on track, made the most out of the conditions to secure the outside of the front row in his No. 9 Dodge. His car was the only Charger able to run above 185 mph, with a qualifying speed of 185.519 mph.

"The track was definitely faster than when the top six or seven were out," Kahne said. "We had a really good track. We just missed [the pole] by a little bit, and we're just looking forward to Sunday."

Rounding the top-three in only his second start for Ginn Racing after coming second at Daytona was Mark Martin. He set a speed of 185.500 mph in his No. 01 US Army Chevrolet.

"I'm really thrilled," Martin said. "Last time here I had a pretty good car and I overdrove the qualifying lap, about killed myself and qualified 38th. I feel better today. I'm incredibly pleased with my lap."

Daytona 500 champion Kevin Harvick qualified fourth, following his strong run from last week. He edged Dale Earnhardt Jr and Richard Childress Racing teammate Clint Bowyer who had been second fastest in practice.

Best of the rookies again was Juan Pablo Montoya, who was provisionaly in second as he completed his early run. The Colombian completed just one qualifying lap, like most of the top runners, with a speed of 184.219 mph.

Former Ganassi driver Casey Mears rounded up the top ten ahead of Tony Stewart. Greg Biffle was fastest among the Ford drivers in thirteenth ahead of Dave Blaney and Brian Vickers, the top Toyota qualifiers.

Four out of the Camrys entered for the race finally made the field as Michael Waltrip, Jeremy Mayfield, and Red Bull's AJ Allmendinger all failed to qualify. Dale Jarrett didn't complete his qualifying run but will start the race last, thanks to his past champion status.

Ward Burton, Brandon Whitt, Mike Bliss, Kenny Wallace and Kevin Lepage also failed to qualify. Lepage was the only driver to have an incident during the session when he spun going out of turn four as he was about to start his qualifying run.

Two practice sessions will take place on Saturday ahead of the race, where drivers will work on their race set-ups.

Auto Club 500 race line-up:

Pos  Driver              Make        Speed     Time
 1.  Jeff Gordon         Chevrolet   185.735   38.765
 2.  Kasey Kahne         Dodge       185.519   38.810 + 0.045
 3.  Mark Martin         Chevrolet   185.500   38.814 + 0.049
 4.  Kevin Harvick       Chevrolet   185.424   38.830 + 0.065
 5.  Dale Earnhardt Jr   Chevrolet   185.404   38.834 + 0.069
 6.  Clint Bowyer        Chevrolet   184.805   38.960 + 0.195
 7.  Martin Truex Jr     Chevrolet   184.573   39.009 + 0.244
 8.  Jeff Burton         Chevrolet   184.341   39.058 + 0.293
 9.  Juan Montoya        Dodge       184.219   39.084 + 0.319
10.  Casey Mears         Chevrolet   184.153   39.098 + 0.333
11.  Tony Stewart        Chevrolet   184.148   39.099 + 0.334
12.  Kyle Busch          Chevrolet   184.139   39.101 + 0.336
13.  Greg Biffle         Ford        183.932   39.145 + 0.380
14.  Dave Blaney         Toyota      183.927   39.146 + 0.381
15.  Brian Vickers       Toyota      183.852   39.162 + 0.397
16.  Jeff Green          Chevrolet   183.749   39.184 + 0.419
17.  Denny Hamlin        Chevrolet   183.650   39.205 + 0.440
18.  Kurt Busch          Dodge       183.627   39.210 + 0.445
19.  Ryan Newman         Dodge       183.533   39.230 + 0.465
20.  Reed Sorenson       Dodge       183.467   39.244 + 0.479
21.  Carl Edwards        Ford        183.365   39.266 + 0.501
22.  Paul Menard         Chevrolet   183.323   39.275 + 0.510
23.  Jimmie Johnson      Chevrolet   183.299   39.280 + 0.515
24.  David Stremme       Dodge       183.136   39.315 + 0.550
25.  Matt Kenseth        Ford        182.932   39.359 + 0.594
26.  Joe Nemechek        Chevrolet   182.871   39.372 + 0.607
27.  Sterling Marlin     Chevrolet   182.857   39.375 + 0.610
28.  Bobby Labonte       Dodge       182.723   39.404 + 0.639
29.  JJ Yeley            Chevrolet   182.639   39.422 + 0.657
30.  Scott Riggs         Dodge       182.611   39.428 + 0.663
31.  Johnny Sauter       Chevrolet   182.593   39.432 + 0.667
32.  John Andretti       Dodge       182.500   39.452 + 0.687
33.  David Reutimann     Toyota      182.431   39.467 + 0.702
34.  Ricky Rudd          Ford        182.089   39.541 + 0.776
35.  Jamie McMurray      Ford        181.947   39.572 + 0.807
36.  Ken Schrader        Ford        181.685   39.629 + 0.864
37.  Kyle Petty          Dodge       181.680   39.630 + 0.865
38.  Elliott Sadler      Dodge       181.603   39.647 + 0.882
39.  David Ragan         Ford        181.525   39.664 + 0.899
40.  David Gilliland     Ford        181.420   39.687 + 0.922
41.  Tony Raines         Chevrolet   181.374   39.697 + 0.932
42.  Robby Gordon        Ford        180.212   39.953 + 1.188
43.  Dale Jarrett        Toyota      Champion's Provisional