Gordon may be getting the hang of Texas track now

Friday, Nov. 06, 2009

FORT WORTH, Texas – Texas Motor Speedway once appeared to be the bane of Jeff Gordon’s existence in NASCAR's top series.

The first four times he visited the track, Gordon couldn't finish better than 25th and wrecked twice. He was even dead-last in one of those races. But his performances at the 1.5-mile track eventually improved.

Still, it wasn’t until this spring that he visited Victory Lane, giving him one win in 17 tries. Apparently, he hasn’t forgotten his good fortune.

Gordon posted a lap at 191.117 mph during Friday’s qualifying session to claim the pole for Sunday’s Dickies 500, which he hopes will translate into a second consecutive win at Texas.

"I would hardly say we own the place (now), but you know I think that we really didn't get enough credit for the first three or four races here. We were the best car at just about every one of those races and we just had crazy-weird things happen to us," the four-time Cup champion said.

"Those are sometimes things you can't control. But it just started a trend of not-good results and they just continued. Then there was a time period where we were just terrible. And when there's a track like that that challenges us this much, it really makes us go to work.

"It inspires us to try and find something to get better."

And, lately, Gordon and the No. 24 team appear to have found it.

The pole win on Friday was their first of the season. The last one came at this race one year ago. Gordon has now won at least one pole in each of his 17 Cup seasons.

"We’ve got three races left and we want poles. We want wins," Gordon said. "We want to get a lot of points and get ourselves as high up in the points as we possibly can for the championship, and also build something for next year.

"It's an honor to have 17 straight seasons, I will say. It's something we're very proud of."

Kasey Kahne qualified second, Kurt Busch third, Tony Stewart fourth and Kyle Busch fifth.

Series points leader Jimmie Johnson – who holds a 184-point lead in the standings over Mark Martin – will line up 12th. Martin starts seventh.

Johnson is looking forward to Sunday's race.

"The way our mile-and-a-half program has been, we'll be very competitive on Sunday. We finished second in the spring race to Jeff," Johnson noted.

"So I know (Hendrick Motorsports) is going to be strong. My teammates are going to have good cars. We'll just get out there and race for it."

Tony Raines, Dave Blaney, Max Papis and Mike Bliss failed to make the 43-car field.

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