Gordon claims Loudon pole

Jeff Gordon beat Kyle Busch to pole position for Sunday’s second NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Chase round at Loudon.

Four-time champion Gordon had been second fastest in practice and was therefore the penultimate car to complete his qualifying run.

He improved on Joe Gibbs Racing driver Busch’s previous benchmark by 33 thousandths of the second with a lap of 28.232 seconds.

Denny Hamlin, who had like looked the driver to beat heading into qualifying after topping practice, ended up a disappointing 32nd, worst among Chase contenders.

Gordon’s second pole of the season comes following a poor start to his championship campaign, when he crashed due to a stuck throttle last week at Chicagoland Speedway’s Chase opener.

“That was a great lap,” said Gordon. “Started off kind of a tough day for us in race trim. We tried some things that weren’t working too well for us, switched over to qualifying trim and immediately went to second on the board. But even at that we were quite a way behind [Hamlin].

“The car really did everything I asked for it to do in that run… This was a great one and certainly good timing.”

Hamlin’s JGR team-mate Kyle Busch will start second ahead of reigning champion Tony Stewart and Michael Waltrip Racing’s Brian Vickers, who returns to the #55 Toyota this week for his seventh outing of the season.

Five Chase contenders took positions 12th through 16th, with former Loudon winner Clint Bowyer leading the sequence in his #15 MWR Toyota.

Penske’s Brad Keselowski, who leads the Chase after his Chicagoland win, was 15th behind Roush’s Greg Biffle, Hendrick’s Dale Earnhardt Jr and ahead of Richard Childress Racing’s Kevin Harvick.

Jimmie Johnson, second in the play-off standings, was only 20th, having run the eighth fastest lap in practice.

Scott Speed was the fastest of the non-guaranteed drivers in 27th while David Stremme, Scott Riggs, Jason Leffler and Jeff Green initially failed to make the field.

However, Josh Wise had his times disallowed after officials found the gas pressure on the rear shocks exceeded the limit, losing his spot on the grid and allowing Stremme a place in the field.

Source: http://www.iracing.com/inracingnews/nascar-news/nascar/gordon-claims-loudon-pole

Howden Ganley Frank Gardner Billy Garrett Jo Gartner Tony Gaze