NASCAR Sprint-Cup Series
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CUP: Gordon Wins Loudon Pole
Jeff Gordon will start Chase Race Two from the front row...
Mike Hembree  |  Posted September 21, 2012   Loudon, NH
Disappointed by a bad finish in last week’s Chase for the Sprint Cup, Jeff Gordon jumped back into the conversation Friday by winning the pole for Sunday’s Sylvania 300 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

Gordon, the next-to-last driver to attempt to qualify, bumped Kyle Busch from the pole with a speed of 134.911 miles per hour. The pole is the 72nd of Gordon’s career.

Denny Hamlin led Friday practice and thus was the last driver to make a qualifying run, but he fared poorly, winding up in the 32nd spot. Team members later said Hamlin made his time-trial laps with race-trim tire pressures.

Gordon is 12th – and last – in the Chase standings after hitting the wall last week at Chicagoland and finishing 35th.

“Track position is big here because of a couple of different factors,” Gordon said. “This track is hard to get heat in tires in the short run, so you really slide around a lot. You can really lose positions on restarts if you’re not careful. Maintaining track position on cold tires is hard to do.

“It’s tough to pass here, so track position is very, very important.”

Following Gordon and Busch Friday in the top five were Tony Stewart, Brian Vickers and Carl Edwards. In the second five were Kasey Kahne, Paul Menard, Ryan Newman, Martin Truex Jr. and Dave Blaney (substituting for Sam Hornish Jr. in the Penske Racing 22).

Hornish is scheduled to drive the 22 Sunday.

Gordon said the Chicago finish didn’t shock his confidence or that of his team.

“My confidence wasn’t the issue or the team’s,” he said. “We were running fourth when we wrecked last week. Your confidence gets broken when you’re running 25th. That’s what gotten us through the whole season. We’ve had a lot of problems that have been frustrating, and we’ve had to battle through them, but our cars have been really, really fast.”

Josh Wise’s qualifying time was disallowed after inspectors said the gas pressure in his rear shocks exceeded allowable limits.

Mike Hembree is NASCAR Editor for SPEED.com and has been covering motorsports for 30 years. He is a six-time winner of the National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year Award.
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