#24-Jeff Gordon won his 70th career pole Saturday and led a Hendrick Motorsports sweep of the top four spots at Talladega Superspeedway — only the third team in NASCAR history to monopolize the first two rows for a Cup race. Gordon turned a two-lap qualifying average of 178.248 mph for the Aaron’s 499. He broke a tie for third place on the career list with Cale Yarborough and trails only Richard Petty (123) and David Pearson (113). But the four-time series champion wasn’t all that thrilled about another landmark: the slowest speed ever to claim the pole at Talladega. It wasn’t even close. Gordon was more than 6 mph slower than the previous mark, a pole-winning speed.(Associated Press/ESPN.com)(4-17-2011)
