Mayfield grabs Dover pole

Mayfield, who qualified for the season play-off by winning emphatically at Richmond two weeks ago, crashed out last week at New Hampshire, dropping to 10th in the standings, 142 points behind co-leaders Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kurt Busch. Friday, Mayfield ran his best lap in 22.584sec (159.405mph) to bump qualifying king Ryan Newman from the top spot.

Mayfield won both poles at Dover this year. He also led four times in the June event and was contending for the lead at the time of the multi-car crash which took out his car, and several others of the leaders, 43 laps from the finish.

"I felt real confident," he said. "This is one of my favourite race tracks, and we seem to do kind of good at times. I felt like we had a shot the last time we were here and got into some trouble. Hopefully this time we'll stay out of trouble."

Mayfield created a stir by wearing, for humour's sake, an orange t-shirt with the slogan, "I want you to stay far, far away from me." That, of course, suggested Robby Gordon, whose orange car caused the wreck at New Hampshire, which took out Mayfield and Tony Stewart.

Mayfield noted the Gordon's car owner, Richard Childress, had called him twice this week and left messages indicating apologies for what had happened. Mayfield said he had not talked with Gordon, saying, "He wasn't in too desperate of a search for me."

Gordon has been placed on probation by Childress to the end of the season, amid questions about his future with the team.

Newman, ninth in the playoff, held the No. 1 spot with a 22.639 (159.018) until Mayfield took it away. Brian Vickers, who crashed in practice, rallied for third place, followed by Elliott Sadler and Michael Waltrip.

Championship co-leaders Kurt Busch and Dale Earnhardt Jr. did well enough, with Busch to start 13th and Earnhardt 16th. Jeff Gordon will start 21st and Stewart 23rd.