NASCAR Cup
Jeff Gordon speeds to Bristol pole
Jeff Gordon racked up his sixth Budweiser pole of the season at Bristol Motor Speedway. his lap of 128.520 mph bested the field by almost one mile-per-hour. "(It was a) great effort today," commented Gordon. "We brought a new car here today, and ...
Published: Aug 28, 2004, 7:47 PM
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Jeff Gordon racked up his sixth Budweiser pole of the season at Bristol Motor Speedway. his lap of 128.520 mph bested the field by almost one mile-per-hour.
"(It was a) great effort today," commented Gordon. "We brought a new car here today, and it certainly paid off. We had a few issues earlier in the day, but it didn't affect the speed of the car. The guys did a great job fine tuning and keeping up with the conditions of the track. It definitely got slick as the sun heated up the track.
"It's amazing how the teams are getting these cars to hook up on these racetracks and the kind of horsepower we are able to get out of these cars."
It is Gordon's 52nd career pole, and fourth at Bristol Motor Speedway. Team 24 continues their charge towards a fifth championship ring: Gordon moved into the lead in points last weekend, putting a 68 marker cushion between himself and second places Jimmie Johnson before the points are reset at the end of the 26th event of the year.
"We pushed the limits," continued Gordon. "We wanted that pole today. We were really good in practice and we knew we were close. I felt like we could certainly push the limits in qualifying. I was pushing so hard I almost wrecked in three and four, but we got lucky there."
Kasey Kahne grabbed the outside pole with a lap of 127.410 mph. It marks Kahne's ninth top-five start of the year.
"The car handled good," commented Kahne. "The outside of the front row is a pretty good spot. We are going to need to get to the bottom pretty quick, but we will get a good pit stall pick and that will be a benefit for sure.
"We're going to just try and stay out of trouble and get whatever we can."
Sterling Marlin was third quickest charting a lap of 127.292 mph, and marking his best starting spot of the season.
"Bristol is one of my favorite tracks, and my home state," Marlin said. "So, I always try and do well here. We took half what the 41 had on their car, and half what the 42 had on their car and threw it on ours.
"It was a good lap for us."
Ryan Newman and Jamie McMurray complete the top five, making it a Dodge sweep of positions two through five.
Forty-nine cars attempted to qualify for the forty-three car field, failing to make the show were Hermie Sadler, Stanton Barrett, Brad Teague, Tony Ave and Ryan McGlynn.
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