NASCAR Sprint-Cup Series
  • Peg It on GarageMonkey
CUP: Jeff Gordon On Pole At CMS
Jeff Gordon won the pole for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Bank of America 500 at Charlotte Motor Speedway...
Mike Hembree  |  Posted October 14, 2010   Concord, NC
Jeff Gordon, driver of the #24 DuPont Chevrolet, signs the wall in Victory Lane after qualifying for pole position in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Bank of America 500 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. (Photo: Getty Images)
Jeff Gordon, still very much in the running for his fifth Sprint Cup championship despite a winless season, broke through in qualifying Thursday night to win the pole for Saturday’s Bank of America 500 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

The pole is the first of the season for Gordon, who hasn’t won a race since April 2009 at Texas Motor Speedway.

But Gordon, thanks to a consistently strong season that has netted him 16 top-10 finishes, sits fourth in points with six races to go. He is 85 points behind Hendrick Motorsports teammate and standings leader Jimmie Johnson, who has won the past four championships.

Gordon ran 191.544 mph in the evening qualifying session to edge Carl Edwards, who ran 191.455. Following in the top five were AJ Allmendinger, Mark Martin and Paul Menard.

The pole is the 69th of Gordon’s career, tying him for third with Cale Yarborough on the all-time list.

“This was huge and a huge shock,” Gordon said. “We just have not been qualifying good this year. We haven’t qualified this well at Charlotte for 10 years. I felt like there was a time when we were almost the pole king when it came to Charlotte. We used to qualify so well here.”

It also was a strong qualifying session for Edwards, whose team has devoted more practice time to qualifying setups in recent months.

“I feel our qualifying is as good as it’s ever been right now,” Edwards said. “At the beginning of the year, we didn’t have good enough cars in the race. We needed to work on race stuff in practice, but lately we’ve been working more on qualifying. I think we’ll stick with that.”

Edwards has won poles recently at Watkins Glen and Richmond.

Johnson qualified 10th to get a good starting spot in pursuit of his fifth straight title. Denny Hamlin, his closest pursuer, was 23rd Thursday night.

Kevin Harvick, third in points, qualified 24th, and Tony Stewart, in fifth, qualified 29th.

Drivers who failed to make the 43-car starting field were Joe Nemechek, Casey Mears, Mike Bliss, Jason Leffler, Kevin Conway and Johnny Sauter.

Mike Hembree is NASCAR Editor for SPEED.com and has been covering motorsports for 28 years. He has written several books on NASCAR, including "NASCAR: The Definitive History of America's Sport" and "Then Tony Said To Junior: The Best NASCAR Stories Ever Told". He is a six-time winner of the National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year Award.

Play Fantasy Racing - Cup Edition!
mike.hembree's avatar

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Mike Hembree

MORE BY THIS AUTHOR
Advertising | Jobs | Feedback | FAQ | Terms of Use | NEW Privacy Policy | Ad Choices | Site Map
Fox Sports | FUEL TV | FX Network | National Geographic | IGN | AskMen
The Motor Sports Authority, SPEED and associated logos are registered trademarks of Speed Channel Inc.
All Rights Reserved © Speed Channel, Inc. 2013

All external links will open in a new browser window. SPEED.com does not endorse external sites.