| | Associated Press
CONCORD, N.C. -- Jeff Gordon, trying to salvage a sub-par
season with a strong finish, won the pole for the UAW-GM Quality
500 on Wednesday night.
Gordon, the defending race champion, ran a lap of 185.561 mph to nudge Bobby Labonte off the pole for Sunday's race. It was the seventh career pole for Gordon at Lowe's Motor Speedway, the most among active drivers.
The three-time Winston Cup champion sat in the car for a long moment after finishing his lap, let out a loud yell, then climbed from his car with a huge smile on his face.
|
No Flipping Race Fans
|
|
Viewers won't have to wonder what's happening on the track when
TBS' coverage of Sunday's NASCAR race cuts to commercials.
For the first time there will be a picture-in-picture display that keeps the UAW-GM Quality 500 in about 25 percent of the television screen during most ads.
"NASCAR is a sport that never stops. Viewers and fans have let broadcasters know over time that they don't like when you leave action because you can miss something," Turner Sports president Mark Lazarus said Wednesday.
About 75 percent of commercial breaks during the race will include the box, in what's being billed as "No Brakes" coverage. Advertisers' terms with TBS were not altered, Lazarus said.
TBS, NBC and Fox Sports begin a new NASCAR TV rights contract next season.
Associated Press
|
"It's been a long time since we've had a car this special," Gordon said. "From the minute we took it off the truck it just stuck and I don't know that we've ever gone around the track that fast."
Labonte, the series points leader, will start from the outside of the front row. He ran his lap around the 1.5-mile, high-banked tri-oval at 185.561 mph _ just 0.007 seconds slower than Gordon.
Jerry Nadeau, Gordon's teammate with Hendrick Motorsports, qualified third, followed by Jimmy Spencer, Dale Jarrett, Ricky Rudd, Bill Elliott, Mark Martin, Johnny Benson and Jeremy Mayfield.
Dale Earnhardt Jr., who won the pole here in the spring, was the top qualifying rookie at 13th. Matt Kenseth, the spring race winner, was 26th and failed to qualify in the first round.
Dale Earnhardt, who trails Labonte by 213 points in his bid for an eighth Winston Cup championship, was 45th.
Labonte, who held the pole while 28 other drivers went out on the track, didn't mind giving up the top spot to Gordon.
"If Jeff was going to beat me, then it's good for him because I know they've been struggling on qualifying lately," Labonte said.
Gordon has struggled in spots this season.
Although he has three victories, he has just one other pole and his average starting position has been 12th -- not good enough by Gordon's standards.
He slumped badly in August, finishing out of the top 20 in all four races. But his luck started to change in September, when he won the Chevrolet Monte Carlo.
The win was slightly tainted, though, when Gordon was penalized for having an unapproved intake manifold. His team was stripped of 100 owner and driver points and fined $25,000.
But Gordon said the victory helped turn his team's fortunes around.
"That win still helped carry momentum for us and helped our team morale," he said. "We know what won that race and it was a great effort."
He finished all five September races in the top-10, helping him move into ninth place in the points standings. Now Gordon is hoping to close out the final six races of the year just as strong.
"Everything after August, those were really good races for us," he said, "and those are the kind of things we're trying to put together to help us with next year, and help us prepare to win a championship next year." | |
ALSO SEE
UAW-GM Quality 500 lineup
Furr: Wheeler gives fans more than just a good race
Notebook: Gordon credits late-season surge to Nadeau
Weber: Pressure on No. 18? Only to win each week
Notebook: Penske protege to run blended season in 2001
AUDIO/VIDEO
 Jeff Gordon is glad to be back in the front row.
wav: 175 k
RealAudio: 14.4 | 28.8 | 56.6
|
