The fifth race of the 2013 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Chase will see Jeff Gordon bring the field to the green flag in Saturday night’s Bank of America 500 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
Gordon, driver of the No. 24 Axalta Chevrolet SS snagged the pole away from Kansas Speedway pole sitter and race winner Kevin Harvick. The Chevrolet teammates were the final two cars to qualify on Thursday night during Bojangles Pole Night.
Gordon scored his ninth career at Charlotte Motor Speedway pole in what will be his 720th NASCAR Sprint Cup Series start. It’s just his second pole of the season. He netted the pole position last month at Richmond (Va.) International Raceway, in the final race of the regulatory season. Overall, it was the four-time champion’s 74th career pole.
Ironically, Gordon earned his first-career NASCAR Sprint Cup Series pole on today’s date, October 10, 1993, becoming the youngest pole sitter at the track – 22 years, two months and six days. The record still stands.
“Man that was awesome,” said a jubilant Gordon. “It’s been a while since we’ve had a pole here at Charlotte as well as doing it in that fashion. The way that the draw was today, there’s a lot of fast cars going late in qualifying. But when you didn’t see the lap times picking up as much as we thought they were going to, I didn’t know if that late draw was going to really be a big factor. But I saw that the guys ahead of me were putting down good laps and I knew the grip was there and what the car did in practice. And the guys just did a phenomenal job on our Axalta Chevrolet all day long making good adjustments. The car just did everything I wanted it to do.”
Harvick discussed his qualifying lap by saying, “I felt like I didn’t get everything in (Turns) 3 and 4. I knew from the way things were going and the way practice was that I needed to try to get everything that I could n (Turns) 1 and 2 and not get tight coming off of Turn 4 and I probably lost the pole right there. I’ve just got to thank all these guys on my Jimmy John’s Chevy. They’ve done a great job. We knew we needed to qualify better in the Chase. We knew we needed to run better on the 1.5-mile race tracks and they’re capitalizing on last week and doing that. We would really have liked to have the pole tonight. But everybody knows how we have qualified in the past and to be on the front row is a great benefit for us.”
Before Harvick took the top-spot, the Richard Childress Racing pilot in his final six races with the No. 29 Budweiser Chevrolet SS team stole the pole from Roush Fenway Racing’s Greg Biffle, who assumed the top-spot from Hendrick Motorsports driver Kasey Kahne, who qualified early in the session.
Five-time champion Jimmie Johnson slipped in-between Biffle and Kahne and will line-up his No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet SS in fourth. Kahne in dire need of a strong run Saturday night landed fifth.
“Glad we were fast today, (I’m) excited for the rest of the weekend to unfold,” said Kahne.
Birthday boy Dale Earnhardt Jr., in his No. 88 Time Warner Cable Chevrolet SS rejuvenated the crowd after maneuvering his Hendrick Motorsports to the second-fastest time originally during his run. He would clock-in sixth quickest overall. NASCAR’s most popular driver also started sixth last weekend at Kansas before finishing eighth.
Ryan Newman, also in the final races of his tenure with Stewart-Haas Racing qualified his No. 39 Quicken Loans Chevrolet SS seventh, while non-chaser Juan Pablo Montoya was the leading driver for Earnhardt-Ganassi Racing (EGR) in eighth. The Busch brothers, Kyle and Kurt will make up row-five claiming ninth and 10th respectively.
Aric Almirola was 11th for Richard Petty Motorsports with Penske Racing’s Joey Logano 12th.
Clint Bowyer led the Michael Waltrip Racing trio in 14th. Bowyer, the Emporia, Kansas native is continuing to salute National Breast Cancer Awareness Month with his No. 15 5-Hour Energy Toyota Camry.
Coca-Cola 600 pole-sitter Denny Hamlin wasn’t able to sweep both Charlotte races this season, as he only managed the 18th fastest time in his No. 11 FedEx Ground Toyota Camry.
Brian Scott earned a solid starting spot for his NASCAR Sprint Cup Series debut, navigating his No. 33 Shore Lodge Chevrolet SS to 19th overall, one spot ahead of current point’s leader Matt Kenseth in the No. 20 Dollar General Toyota Camry. Scott drove for Joe Gibbs Racing and was sponsored by Dollar General in 2012.
In retrospect, Kenseth will start the deepest of the chase contenders this weekend at Charlotte. Before Thursday night’s run, Kenseth’s hasn’t started outside the top-12 since Michigan International Speedway in August.
Kyle Larson, Montoya’s replacement at EGR next year delivered 21st for his NSCS debut. Larson, carrying the Target colors on his No. 51 Chevrolet SS is driving for Phoenix Racing, owned by Harry
Scott, co car-owner of his NASCAR Nationwide Series program at Turner Scott Motorsports, but Larson’s cup program this weekend has been completely assembled and housed out of the EGR stables this weekend.
Mark Martin was 22nd continuing to sub for Tony Stewart in the No. 14 Bass Pro Shops / Mobil 1 Chevrolet SS.
Jamie McMurray’s McDonalds ride looked evil in qualifying and it showed in the starting lineup, only able to pace 25th fastest overall.
Marcos Ambrose after lightly tagging the wall in his time trials effort, will roll from the 29th position in his No. 9 Bostitch Ford Fusion.
Danica Patrick looking to rebound from her lap one incident last Sunday at Kansas Speedway didn’t fare well in her qualifying run at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Her lap of 28.583 seconds at 188.923 miles per hour was only good enough for 35th.
Travis Kvapil after being arrested on Tuesday night in Mooresville, North Carolina for an alleged domestic dispute with his wife hopes to rebound from his 41st place starting position with a solid showing in his No. 93 Dr. Pepper / Burger King Toyota Camry.
Blake Koch, the West Palm Beach, Florida native will be the third driver to make his Cup debut this weekend. Koch will start shotgun on the field driving the No. 95 supportmilitiary.org Ford Fusion in a joint-effort between Go Green Racing and Leavine Family Racing.
With only 43 teams and drivers showing up for the 31st race of the season, no one failed to make the starting lineup.
The Bank of America 500 is set for Saturday, October 12 set to take the green flag shortly after 7:30 p.m. with live coverage on ESPN, SiriusXM Satellite Radio and the Performance Racing Network (PRN).
