A lap he described as “awesome” was good enough to give Jeff Gordon the pole-position in qualifying Thursday night for Saturday’s Bank of America 500 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
NASCAR Charlotte 2013 qualifying results: ‘Awesome’ lap gives Jeff Gordon pole
In a game of one-upmanship between Jeff Gordon and Kevin Harvick, it was Gordon who earned the pole position in qualifying for Saturday’s NASCAR race at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
Streeter Lecka
The last of 43 qualifiers, Gordon traveled 194.308 mph the 1.5-mile oval to secure his second pole of the season and the 74th of his career. Immediately preceding Gordon was Kevin Harvick, who had unseated Greg Biffle just minutes before to take the provisional pole and was also the No. 1 qualifier a week ago at Kansas Speedway.
Gordon enters the weekend fourth in the Sprint Cup standings, 32 points behind leader Matt Kenseth, who qualified 20th.
A four-time Cup champion and a late entry into Chase after not originally qualifying, Gordon is determined to win his first title since 2001 and his first under the current Chase format.
“Man, that was awesome,” Gordon said. “It’s been a while since we’ve had a pole here at Charlotte as well as doing it in that fashion. The way that the draw was today, there’s a lot of fast cars going late in qualifying.
“But when you didn’t see the lap times picking up as much as we thought they were going to, I didn’t know if that late draw was going to really be a big factor. But I saw that the guys ahead of me were putting down good laps and I knew the grip was there and what the car did in practice.”
Hendrick Motorsports teammates Jimmie Johnson and Kasey Kahne posted the fourth and fifth fastest times, respectively. Dale Earnhardt Jr. (sixth), Ryan Newman (seventh), Juan Pablo Montoya (eighth), Kyle Busch (ninth) and Kurt Busch (10th) rounded out the top 10.
A trio of drivers qualified for their first Cup race: Brian Scott (19th), Kyle Larson (21st) and Blake Koch (43rd).
Bank of America 500 starting lineup
1) Jeff Gordon
2) Kevin Harvick
3) Greg Biffle
4) Jimmie Johnson
5) Kasey Kahne
6) Dale Earnhardt Jr.
7) Ryan Newman
8) Juan Pablo Montoya
9) Kyle Busch
10) Kurt Busch
11) Aric Almirola
12) Joey Logano
13) Paul Menard
14) Clint Bowyer
15) Carl Edwards
16) Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
17) Martin Truex Jr.
18) Denny Hamlin
19) Brian Scott
20) Matt Kenseth
21) Kyle Larson
22) Mark Martin
23) Brad Keselowski
24) Bobby Labonte
25) Jamie McMurray
26) Jeff Burton
27) Brian Vickers
28) Casey Mears
29) Marcos Ambrose
30) David Ragan
31) Cole Whitt
32) Landon Cassill
33) Josh Wise
34) David Gilliland
35) Danica Patrick
36) David Reutimann
37) Michael McDowell
38) Joe Nemechek
39) Dave Blaney
40) Timmy Hill
41) Travis Kvapil
42) JJ Yeley
43) Blake Koch
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