Gordon takes pole at sad Rockingham

"Definitely, something was missing when we got to the garage here this morning, but there was also an extra boost of power behind all of this to go out there and do our job," Gordon said. "Once I got in the car, it was the best feeling I had all week. I enjoyed getting back in the race car. My team did a great job preparing this today and everything was totally different. The car did a lot of things I wasn't expecting it to do.

"I'm wearing this 3 cap to let everyone know I'm thinking of Dale, to know how much I respected him and how much I'm missing him. We weren't fishing buddies, we weren't guys who called one another all of the time, but he was somebody that I respected greatly."

Gordon's lap was far below Rusty Wallace's track-qualifying record of 158.035mph, set February 25, 2000.

It was Gordon's 34th career pole in 259 NASCAR Winston Cup races. His most recent pole came at Atlanta in November 2000, two races earlier.

It was also his 15th top-10 qualifying effort and second pole in 17 races at Rockingham, including the last 13 races. Gordon has posted six top-five finishes, including four victories in his 16 previous races at Rockingham.

"We have had great qualifying efforts here," Gordon said. "Even though I only have one pole here, we have always been pretty close to the front. Today had a lot to do with a lot of things."

Gordon used his first lap to warm up his tyres and his second lap to put down the top speed of the day. It was enough to knock Steve Park, who drives for Dale Earnhardt Inc., off the pole. Park ran a lap at 156.395mph in a Chevrolet.

Defending NASCAR Winston Cup champion Bobby Labonte was third at 156.068mph in a Pontiac, Ricky Rudd was fourth at 155.068mph in a Ford and Jeff Burton followed in another Ford.

But this was a day when the attention was given to the driver who wasn't here, Dale Earnhardt, who was killed in the last turn of the last lap of last Sunday's Daytona 500.

"I learned a lot from him, more than he ever imagined," Gordon said. "When we were racing for Winston Cup championships, we didn't get to race together that much. Even though we were battling for the championship, he would have a good run and I would have a bad day. But we had some great runs at Daytona and Talladega because he was the master. If you beat him at Daytona or Talladega, your whole world would change; your whole confidence level would change because he was the absolute best.

"I'm not going to pretend I was his best friend, because I wasn't. He had a lot of things in his life that were different than mine, but the business of racing brought us together a lot. We always looked up to him because he was the leader of our industry."

Earnhardt was the hero of the racing heroes - the man that everyone in the sport looked up to for guidance and to measure one's ability.

"When I was a kid growing up, Steve Kinser was my hero," Gordon said of the World of Outlaws champion. "As I got into this sport, Dale Earnhardt became that hero. I never knew how great he was as a race car driver and I was able to be around him enough to know that he was also a very good person.

"Absolutely, any race car driver would tell you he was their hero because he was so good at so many different things and so comfortable in his ability in that race car."

Gordon's fondest memory of Earnhardt came in an International Race of Champions (IROC) race, not a NASCAR Winston Cup event.

"The first time I was in IROC we were practising and I didn't know what I was doing and he certainly did," Gordon recalled. "I got side-by-side with Ken Schrader on the back straightaway. Dale was behind me and he took me three-wide.

"All three of us were heading down the back straightaway. For some reason, I just decided to look over at Schrader and he was looking straight ahead, real focused and he wasn't going to lift. I looked to the left and Dale was just beaming with a smile, looking over at me grinning. He was just having a ball out there. That's the way he was. He was so comfortable in his environment. That smile meant he was having fun, but he also knew he wasn't going to lift and I was going to lift and I did."

Saturday was the first on-track activity for the NASCAR Winston Cup series since Earnhardt's death. The bright sunshine helped overcome the grim atmosphere that has hung over this sport for the past week.

When Gordon won his first NASCAR Winston Cup championship in 1995, the man he had to beat was Earnhardt.

"He was a guy that was very intense and very dedicated, but he was also a very passionate person who liked to have fun," Gordon said. "Yes, he was `The Intimidator' whether it was on the race track or off the race track playing that game of what it was going to take to win the championship, pulling out of his bag whatever he could.

"Me and Earnhardt had fun but when it was all said and done, we respected him and it was an honour for me to battle with him for that first championship."

Gordon is a man of deep religious faith, but he admits a strong sense of disbelief when he heard that Earnhardt was dead.

"I'm still feeling disbelief," Gordon said. "Faith doesn't mean you don't think it's true, you hope and pray that person's heart and mind was right with God and they are smiling down upon us right now.

"Although Dale Earnhardt was very private with it, I believe he is in that place and that allows the family and friends to be able to get through such a difficult time."





1 24 Jeff Gordon Chevrolet 23.401s, 156.455mph
2 1 Steve Park Chevrolet 23.41s
3 18 Bobby Labonte Pontiac 23.459s
4 28 Ricky Rudd Ford 23.484s
5 99 Jeff Burton Ford 23.534s
6 20 Tony Stewart Pontiac 23.55s
7 15 Michael Waltrip Chevrolet 23.563s
8 10 Johnny Benson Pontiac 23.584s
9 97 Kurt Busch Ford 23.6s
10 11 Brett Bodine Ford 23.612s
11 22 Ward Burton 23.623s
12 25 Jerry Nadeau Chevrolet 23.633s
13 12 Jeremy Mayfield Ford 23.637s
14 9 Bill Elliot Dodge 23.655s
15 36 Ken Schrader Pontiac 23.705s
16 93 Dave Blaney Dodge 23.705s
17 6 Mark Martin Ford 23.721s
18 88 Dale Jarrett Ford 23.729s
19 43 John Andretti Dodge 23.734s
20 1 Jason Leffler Dodge 23.738s
21 55 Bobby Hamilton Chevrolet 23.742s
22 21 Elliot Sadler Ford 23.75s
23 19 Casey Atwood Dodge 23.766s
24 4 Robby Gordon Chevrolet 23.7s
25 8 Dale Earnhardt Jr Chevrolet 23.777s
26 40 Sterling Marlin Dodge 23.779s
27 33 Joe Nemechek Chevrolet 23.782s
28 14 Ron Hornaday Pontiac 23.799s
29 50 Rick Mast Chevrolet 23.805s
30 27 Kenny Wallace Pontiac 23.81s
31 77 Robert Pressley Ford 23.811s
32 26 Jimmy Spencer Ford 23.86s
33 2 Rusty Wallace Ford 23.868s
34 7 Mike Wallace Ford 23.873s
35 5 Terry Labonte Chevrolet 23.876s
36 29 Kevin Harvick Chevrolet 23.982s
37 31 Mike Skinner Chevrolet 24.034s
38 17 Matt Kenseth Ford 23.928s
39 66 Todd Bodine Ford 24.001s
40 92 Stacy Compton Dodge 23.968s
41 32 Ricky Craven Ford 23.976s
42 44 Buckshot Jones Dodge 23.976s
43 90 Hut Stricklin Ford 24.089s