Jeff Gordon was fastest in the abbreviated practice then backed it up when it counted later in the afternoon and took the Bud Pole at Martinsville Speedway today for Sunday’s Subway 500 with a time of 19.938 (94.974 mph). This is the 7th top-spot of the season for Gordon and the 63rd of his Nextel Cup career. Martin Truex Jr (2nd) ties his career-best starting spot this weekend. He had the outside pole at Chicagoland in July and Loudon in September. Kevin Harvick (3rd) has his best starting spot since he had the outside pole at Phoenix last November. J. J. Yeley (8th) has his best starting spot since he had the pole at Michigan in June. Tony Raines (10th) has his best startings spot since he lined up 4th at Rockingham in November of 2003! Johnny Sauter (13th) has his best starting spot since he timed in 4th at New Hampshire in June. Aric Almirola (27th) has his career-best starting spot this weekend. His previous best was 31st at Las Vegas in March. Jeff Green (31st) has his best starting spot since he qualified 24th at the Brickyard in August. STREAKIN….Jimmie Johnson has 11 Top-10 starts in the last 12 races. 48 cars on hand….five on the Trouble Train. Sam Hornish Jr, Joe Nemechek, Brian Vickers, Jeremy Mayfield, and Kevin Lepage get the early out this week. As worried as most of the “Chasers” were a couple weeks ago at ‘Dega, this place can be just as troublesome. My perfect scenario for the Chase would be five plate races and five short tracks. We’d have 12 nervous drivers for a solid 10 weeks….but then, they probably wouldn’t be much fun to be around, huh?(Stock Car Fans)(10-20-2007)
