NASCAR Talladega: Jeff Gordon takes pole position

Gordon led the first round by 0.219 seconds from fellow Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet driver Kasey Kahne and he repeated that feat in the pole positon shootout, but with an improved time of 49.234s.

Jimmie Johnson made it a top-three lockout for Hendrick, with the team's fourth driver Dale Earnhardt Jr in fifth.

The interloper in fourth was Joe Gibbs Toyota driver Matt Kenseth, just one thousandth of a second slower than Johnson.

Kenseth and Earnhardt Jr are 12th and 11th in the Chase standings and must break into the top eight after Sunday's race to proceed to the next round.

Sixth was Trevor Bayne, whose only previous top 10 start this year came on a grid set by practice times.

Kevin Harvick took seventh ahead of Denny Hamlin and Ryan Blaney, with last week's controversial Kansas winner Joey Logano 10th.

Brad Keselowski and Tony Stewart completed the 12 drivers that made it through to round two.

Five Chase drivers didn't make the cut. Directly behind 13th-placed Paul Menard were Kurt Busch, Carl Edwards and Kyle Busch, while Ryan Newman followed Ricky Stenhouse Jr in 18th.

Martin Truex Jr will have to start from the rear of the 43-car field after having his first-round lap disallowed for running beneath the yellow line.

The Furniture Row racer, currently on the bubble in eighth place in the standings, said he was unaware of the rule.

A further bizarre incident came near the end of the first round when Clint Bowyer, prior to leaving the pitlane for his lap, reversed into Justin Allgaier's #51 HScott entry - the car he will take over next season.

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