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Gordon Takes Pole In Texas

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The Associated Press

Published: November 1, 2008

FORT WORTH, Texas - The sun shined down on NASCAR on Friday and Jeff Gordon took full advantage of the chance to qualify for a Sprint Cup race for the first time in a month.

After qualifying was rained out three straight weeks, with NASCAR lining up the cars by points, Gordon won the pole for Sunday's Dickies 500 on the 1.5-mile Texas Motor Speedway oval. His fast lap of 188.469 mph relegated early leader Martin Truex Jr. to second at 188.003 in the 43-car field.

It was the fourth pole of the season for the four-time series champion, as well as the 67th of his career. But it was Gordon's first pole in 16 tries at Texas.

"Texas has not been our best track, so this is really good," said Gordon, whose only last-place finishes have both been at Texas, including finishing 43rd here last spring.

"It's a great start to the weekend," Gordon noted. "I'm always optimistic any time we go to any racetrack, whether we've been good or bad. As a race team, we're just good enough to overcome anything that tries to tear us down.

"I came in here knowing that we've made huge changes and gains with our race package and our cars. The first lap on the track is always the first sign of where you are. The first lap I thought, 'Well, this thing feels pretty good, just too tight.'"

Series leader and defending race winner Jimmie Johnson, who started from the top spot after each of the rainouts, won't have the benefit of the first pick of pit positions this week after qualifying seventh.

Clint Bowyer, another of the 12 drivers in the Chase, was third, followed by Jamie McMurray and four more Chasers: Dale Earnhardt Jr., Matt Kenseth, Johnson and Tony Stewart.

The rest of the drivers in the Chase were well down the lineup, with series runner-up Carl Edwards, 183 points behind Johnson, 16th; Denny Hamlin 17th; third-place Greg Biffle 19th; Kevin Harvick 23rd; Kyle Busch 29th; and Jeff Burton 38th.

NATIONWIDE: Carl Edwards has a big jump on Nationwide Series points leader Clint Bowyer in Texas.

Edwards, who won last week at Memphis to move within 116 points of Bowyer with three races left, earned his fourth pole of the season Friday night at the 1 1/2 -mile high-banked Texas track with a lap of 188.101 mph in his Ford.

FORMULA ONE: Two-time world champion Fernando Alonso and Formula One officials scorned a Spanish Web site's racist messages against championship leader Lewis Hamilton.

"I want to express my total condemnation of this kind of behavior, which is totally unacceptable in the world of sports, as well as in life," Alonso, a Spaniard, said after practice on Friday.

The Web site pinchalaruedadehamilton.com (or Burst Hamilton's Tires) asks visitors to place virtual pins, nails and porcupines on a computer version of the Interlagos track to try to keep F1's first black driver from finishing Sunday's decisive race.

Visitors are also invited to "leave a message to Hamilton," and many of them are full of racism and obscenities.

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