Gordon's Daytona pole

Gordon, a three-time winner this season, also scored the pole two weeks ago at Michigan and dominated from the number one spot last week at Sonoma. On Thursday night, he edged the potent DEI car of Michael Waltrip, who won this race in 2002. Gordon's lap was in 47.705sec (188.660mph), with resurgent Waltrip running 47.715 (188.620).

DEI cars have won 10 of the past 14 restricted races, with Dale Earnhardt Jr winning the Daytona 500 here in February. Earnhardt was fifth on Thursday at 47.888.

Hendrick Motorsports appears to have closed the gap on DEI in restrictor technology. Five Hendrick-powered cars made the top 10, with Joe Nemechek, Scott Riggs, Ward Burton and Terry Labonte making the elite list. Intruding were the newly puissant Fords of Ricky Rudd, Dale Jarrett and Greg Biffle, the latter winning this race last year.

Elliott Sadler actually brought in a fourth Ford, claiming ninth-place on speed. His time, however, was tossed out when his car was found to be below height in inspection. Sadler instead received first provisional and will start 39th.

"We've really gotten our act together," said Gordon. "We have tremendous power. Our cars are handling well. Right now, these guys are just really on top of their game. I'm having a blast right now. The confidence level is sky-high for us.

"You take away a couple of mishaps - the blown motor [Michigan] and the blown right-front [Darlington], and who knows where we could be right now or what statistics we could have added. But we can't go back and do those over. We've just got to look at the future move forward. Right now the future is looking real good."

Gordon won the last restricted race, at Talladega in April, in a controversial finish. His other victory this year came at Fontana the following week.