Gordon takes Texas Cup pole

The four-times Sprint Cup series champion had dominated practice earlier in the day and improved his pace by about two tenths of a second on his only flying lap to claim his first ever pole position at one of the two tracks where he has never won a Cup race in his career.

"It was a great lap," said Gordon, who remains win-less this season with only three races left. "I think it has been very well documented how tough a weekend we had here in Texas back in April but this team has been working so hard that today was a real sign of that effort.

"I just think it's so ironic that the last three tracks Martinsville, Charlotte and Atlanta were all tracks where we thought we could win the pole at. Didn't get the opportunity because of rain and I though the last place we could win a pole was here at Texas and here we are in the pole, so anything can happen."

Martin Truex Jr matched his best qualifying effort of the season by lining up in the front row beside Gordon, while Clint Bowyer also equalled his season's best by taking third on the grid for Sunday's race.

Jamie McMurray was fourth while Dale Earnhardt Jr rounded up the top five. Reigning champion and Chase leader Jimmie Johnson will start from the inside of the fourth row of the grid, while rival Carl Edwards, who won at Texas in the spring, will line up 16th.

"I'm glad we were able to get this in just to be able to spread the guys out in the Chase," said Edwards following qualifying. "It's not the best qualifying effort for us, but it's not that bad to have a good start. We've got a great race car."

Qualifying low among the Chase contenders were Kyle Busch in 29th and Jeff Burton, who was only 38th fastest.

Quickest among those having to qualify on time was rookie Sam Hornish Jr in 21st, while AJ Allmendinger had been second fastest in practice but struggled on his qualifying effort and only lined up 36th on his third outing replacing Patrick Carpentier at the wheel of the No.10 Gillett Evernham Dodge.

"It's a little disappointing," said Allmendinger. "We were so solid in practice, but at least we're in the show. The car was pretty tight during our qualifying run and that wasn't the lap we were looking for. We'll put our focus towards practice tomorrow and getting another solid finish in the race. I know we can accomplish that."

Brad Keselowski made the field for his Sprint Cup debut in the No.25 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, beating Joey Logano who was the slowest qualifier in the No.02 JGR Toyota.

"I'm pretty sure I have a better race car than qualifying car," said Logano. "We were good in race trim at the beginning of the practice than for qualifying trim we were junk. We weren't much better this time but that's why we have tomorrow to work on this thing."

Meanwhile Ganassi's Bryan Clauson failed to be quick enough after hitting the wall twice on his run. Max Papis also struggled to find enough speed on his first outing for Germain Racing but he will try to make the field again at the season finale at Homestead.

Tony Raines, Chad McCumbee and Johnny Sauter also failed to qualify.

Pos  Driver             Car        Speed    Time
 1.  Jeff Gordon        Chevrolet  188.469  28.652
 2.  Martin Truex Jr    Chevrolet  188.003  28.723  + 0.071
 3.  Clint Bowyer       Chevrolet  187.859  28.745  + 0.093
 4.  Jamie McMurray     Ford       187.859  28.745  + 0.093
 5.  Dale Earnhardt Jr  Chevrolet  187.748  28.762  + 0.110
 6.  Matt Kenseth       Ford       187.428  28.811  + 0.159
 7.  Jimmie Johnson     Chevrolet  187.402  28.815  + 0.163
 8.  Tony Stewart       Toyota     187.246  28.839  + 0.187
 9.  Reed Sorenson      Dodge      187.175  28.850  + 0.198
10.  Scott Riggs        Chevrolet  187.136  28.856  + 0.204
11.  Paul Menard        Chevrolet  186.883  28.895  + 0.243
12.  David Reutimann    Toyota     186.677  28.927  + 0.275
13.  Brian Vickers      Toyota     186.664  28.929  + 0.277
14.  Casey Mears        Chevrolet  186.632  28.934  + 0.282
15.  Michael Waltrip    Toyota     186.554  28.946  + 0.294
16.  Carl Edwards       Ford       186.541  28.948  + 0.296
17.  Denny Hamlin       Toyota     186.509  28.953  + 0.301
18.  David Ragan        Ford       186.503  28.954  + 0.302
19.  Greg Biffle        Ford       186.490  28.956  + 0.304
20.  Mark Martin        Chevrolet  186.413  28.968  + 0.316
21.  Sam Hornish Jr     Dodge      186.335  28.980  + 0.328
22.  Robby Gordon       Dodge      186.316  28.983  + 0.331
23.  Kevin Harvick      Chevrolet  186.297  28.986  + 0.334
24.  Marcos Ambrose     Toyota     186.284  28.988  + 0.336
25.  Regan Smith        Chevrolet  186.207  29.000  + 0.348
26.  Juan Montoya       Dodge      186.162  29.007  + 0.355
27.  Joe Nemechek       Chevrolet  186.079  29.020  + 0.368
28.  Kasey Kahne        Dodge      186.021  29.029  + 0.377
29.  Kyle Busch         Toyota     185.778  29.067  + 0.415
30.  Elliott Sadler     Dodge      185.778  29.067  + 0.415
31.  Ryan Newman        Dodge      185.695  29.080  + 0.428
32.  Ken Schrader       Toyota     185.695  29.080  + 0.428
33.  Scott Speed        Toyota     185.644  29.088  + 0.436
34.  David Gilliland    Ford       185.370  29.131  + 0.479
35.  Bobby Labonte      Dodge      185.141  29.167  + 0.515
36.  AJ Allmendinger    Dodge      184.881  29.208  + 0.556
37.  Brad Keselowski    Chevrolet  184.766  29.226  + 0.574
38.  Jeff Burton        Chevrolet  184.754  29.228  + 0.576
39.  Bill Elliott       Ford       184.609  29.251  + 0.599
40.  Kurt Busch         Dodge      184.483  29.271  + 0.619
41.  Dave Blaney        Toyota     184.300  29.300  + 0.648
42.  Travis Kvapil      Ford       183.798  29.380  + 0.728
43.  Joey Logano        Toyota     184.281  29.303  + 0.651
 
Did not qualify:

     Driver             Car        Speed    Time
     Bryan Clauson      Dodge      183.536  29.422  + 0.770
     Tony Raines        Chevrolet  183.449  29.436  + 0.784
     Chad McCumbee      Dodge      182.371  29.610  + 0.958
     Max Papis          Toyota     180.138  29.977  + 1.325
     Johnny Sauter      Dodge      179.087  30.153  + 1.501