Gordon Wins Pole For Goody's Cool Orange 500 At Martinsville

Martinsville, VA (AHN) -- Jeff Gordon qualified the No. 24 DuPont Chevrolet fastest around the .526-mile short track at Martinsville Speedway on Friday, winning the pole for Sunday's Goody's Cool Orange 500 with a time of 19.666 seconds or 96.288 mph.

It was the 65th career pole for Gordon, who has won seven times at Martinsville, including twice from the pole.

Denny Hamlin will be on the outside pole with a time of 95.757 mph, followed by rookie Aric Almirola at 95.733 mph and David Ragan at 95.569 mph.

Jamie McMurray qualified fifth with a time of 95.492 mph. He had to make the race on speed after having dropped out of the top 35 in owner points.

The rest of the top 10 has Kasey Kahne, Ken Scrader, Kyle Busch, Tony Stewart and Jimmie Johnson.

Johnson has won the last three races at Martinsville, and between and he and Gordon, they have won eight of the last 10 races here.

Hamlin has four top-10 finishes in five career starts at Martinsville.

Said Hamlin, "I'm usually the guy that runs right behind them. I think we're maybe more prepared for those guys this year. Typically, when we come here, we know we can run top-three, and those two cars are the ones you have to beat."

Rookie Dario Franchitti was the last driver to make the race on speed, bumping Kyle Petty from the field. They ran the same speeds, but Franchitti is ahead of Petty in owner point standings.

Others who raced their way into the field on speed were Schrader, Mike Skinner, Bill Elliott, Dave Blaney, Regan Smith and Patrick Carpentier.

Besides Petty, John Andretti, Tony Raines and Joe Nemechek failed to quailfy for the race.