Gordon secures Sprint pole at Atlanta

Gordon ran early in the session before proceedings had to be interrupted momentarily, improving over the previous benchmark by around half a second, setting a time of 29.927 seconds at an average speed of 185.251 mph.

At the time, the rain more than anything else was threatening Gordon's pole but in the end only Dale Earnhardt Jr came close to knock him off from the top spot.

"I'm surprised it didn't rain and I'm really surprised that that lap held up," Gordon said. "I've really gotta thank my teammates at Hendrick Motorsports. We did not test when everybody came here last season and all the information that we got from those guys really paid off."

"We worked great on practice and made some adjustments, got better, put one heck of a lap early there and I'm really proud of that."

Dale Earnhardt Jr had been fastest in practice earlier but had to be happy with the outside of the front row of the grid at one of his favorite racetracks. He ended up less than a tenth off from Gordon's lap time, but nearly two tenths clear from Martin Truex Jr, who was third.

"I would like another shot at it," Earnhardt said about his lap. "I didn't get to the green flag good. But I'm really proud of the lap. We'll have to wait until Sunday. We've got a great car and I love this racetrack. I'm really looking forward to (the race)."

Carl Edwards qualified in a solid fourth place although he said his lap was affected by the slight rain, which seemed to make a difference for him when running at speed in the banking.

"There was just a little bit too much rain," Edwards said. "I ran that first lap pretty hard and then I just kind of puttered around that second lap. I was trying to see how much the car would change, but that's really a pretty good lap for us."

Bobby Labonte was a surprise fifth as the best Dodge ahead of points leader Kyle Busch, who led the Joe Gibbs Racing Toyotas.

Joe Nemechek was the fastest from the group of non-guaranteed drivers who needed to make the field on speed. He was 17th fastest with a very good second lap, while Patrick Carpentier also ran a quick second lap to put his car 21st on the grid as the fastest rookie qualifier.

Dario Franchitti was 23rd - his best qualifying effort of the season thus far - but ran in the same tenth as Carpentier and ahead of his more experienced Ganassi teammate Reed Sorenson.

"Certainly this is the most aggressive I've been just driving the car," Franchitti said. "I had to just learn it, to get on it, even when it's not feeling so good but I have to say the Fastenal Dodge felt really good. Amazed how much grip there was on the track.

"I could have probably been a little bit quicker but I didn't make any mistakes so pretty happy."

Also making the field were Michael Waltrip, David Reutimann, Mike Skinner and Brian Vickers, marking the first time this season that both Red Bull Racing team cars have made the field. Dale Jarrett made use of one of his champion's provisionals to grab the last spot on the grid for Sunday.

Ken Schrader, Bill Elliott, Johnny Benson, Burney Lamar and John Andretti did not qualify for Sunday's Kobalt Tools 500.

Pos  Driver              Car        Speed    Time
 1.  Jeff Gordon         Chevrolet  185.251  29.927    
 2.  Dale Earnhardt Jr   Chevrolet  184.862  29.990    + 0.063
 3.  Martin Truex Jr     Chevrolet  183.807  30.162    + 0.235
 4.  Carl Edwards        Ford       183.297  30.246    + 0.319
 5.  Bobby Labonte       Dodge      183.249  30.254    + 0.327
 6.  Kyle Busch          Toyota     182.910  30.310    + 0.383
 7.  Clint Bowyer        Chevrolet  182.753  30.336    + 0.409
 8.  Kevin Harvick       Chevrolet  182.627  30.357    + 0.430
 9.  Kasey Kahne         Dodge      182.344  30.404    + 0.477
10.  Mark Martin         Chevrolet  182.332  30.406    + 0.479
11.  Jimmie Johnson      Chevrolet  182.207  30.427    + 0.500
12.  Ryan Newman         Dodge      182.135  30.439    + 0.512
13.  Greg Biffle         Ford       181.920  30.475    + 0.548
14.  David Ragan         Ford       181.866  30.484    + 0.557
15.  Jeff Burton         Chevrolet  181.824  30.491    + 0.564
16.  Dave Blaney         Toyota     181.777  30.499    + 0.572
17.  Joe Nemechek        Chevrolet  181.747  30.504    + 0.577
18.  Elliott Sadler      Dodge      181.735  30.506    + 0.579
19.  Juan Montoya        Dodge      181.515  30.543    + 0.616
20.  Paul Menard         Chevrolet  181.455  30.553    + 0.626
21.  Patrick Carpentier  Dodge      181.331  30.574    + 0.647
22.  Denny Hamlin        Toyota     181.307  30.578    + 0.651
23.  Dario Franchitti    Dodge      181.283  30.582    + 0.655
24.  Jamie McMurray      Ford       181.011  30.628    + 0.701
25.  Reed Sorenson       Dodge      180.964  30.636    + 0.709
26.  Robby Gordon        Dodge      180.875  30.651    + 0.724
27.  Michael Waltrip     Toyota     180.592  30.699    + 0.772
28.  Scott Riggs         Chevrolet  180.527  30.710    + 0.783
29.  Kurt Busch          Dodge      180.516  30.712    + 0.785
30.  David Reutimann     Toyota     180.398  30.732    + 0.805
31.  David Gilliland     Ford       180.363  30.738    + 0.811
32.  Tony Stewart        Toyota     180.228  30.761    + 0.834
33.  Sam Hornish Jr      Dodge      180.047  30.792    + 0.865
34.  Mike Skinner        Toyota     180.047  30.792    + 0.865
35.  Brian Vickers       Toyota     179.977  30.804    + 0.877
36.  Jeremy Mayfield     Chevrolet  179.720  30.848    + 0.921
37.  J.J. Yeley          Toyota     179.516  30.883    + 0.956
38.  Matt Kenseth        Ford       179.359  30.910    + 0.983
39.  Casey Mears         Chevrolet  178.677  31.028    + 1.101
40.  Kyle Petty          Dodge      178.643  31.034    + 1.107
41.  Regan Smith         Chevrolet  177.102  31.304    + 1.377
42.  Travis Kvapil       Ford       176.904  31.339    + 1.412
43.  Dale Jarrett        Toyota     Champion's Provisional