(BRISTOL, Tenn. AP-August 22, 2003) - Jeff Gordon's frustrating pursuit of his fifth Winston Cup title took a positive turn Friday when he won the pole for the Sharpie 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway. Gordon, quickest in the morning practice, pulled an early draw and turned a lap in 15.038 seconds around Bristol to break the event qualifying record of 15.292 seconds set by Rusty Wallace in 2000. A brief thunderstorm then interrupted qualifying and Gordon was positive his time wouldn't stand once the session resumed. It almost didn't.
Mark Martin, one of the last cars to qualify, ran a lap at 15.039 seconds to just miss bumping Gordon off the pole. Instead, they will start first and second in Saturday night's race. "The whole day has been really great for us, but I didn't think that was my best lap," Gordon said. "And when that rain came, I thought for sure somebody was going to beat us." Martin was pleased with his qualifying lap because his No. 6 Ford has struggled in that phase most of the season. He's only
qualified inside the top 10 four other times. "It's a starting spot and it sure beats starting in the back
and the pit selection is horrendous," he said. "Just because we start up front doesn't mean we're going to avoid a nightmare." Michael Waltrip qualified third, Mike Skinner was fourth and
Kurt Busch, recipient of a Jimmy Spencer punch in the face last week in Michigan, qualified fifth.
Ryan Newman, who has a series-high five victories this season, qualified sixth. Ted Musgrave, filling in for Spencer while he sits out a one-week NASCAR suspension, was seventh. Ricky Rudd qualified eighth and Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Winston Cup points leader Matt Kenseth rounded out the top 10. Kenseth currently holds a 329-point advantage over Earnhardt in the standings and Gordon is in third, 461 points back. Gordon has been trying hard to close the gap, but bad luck has
hampered his effort. He started from the pole two weeks ago at Watkins Glen, only to run out of gas right before the finish line, get hit by Kevin Harvick and slide off the track to a 33rd-place
finish. And he struggled last week at Michigan to a 30th-place finish that demoralized his hopes for the title this season. "I've still got hope, but it's a long shot, I can tell you that," he said. "We've just tried to stay focused on putting out the best race cars, the best efforts, and try to win races.
"We can't control what happens to any other team but ours." But he admitted its been frustrating for the rest of the field to watch Kenseth consistently put together strong runs week in and week out. Kenseth's lowest finish this season was 22nd and he's got 18 top 10's. "As long as Matt keeps doing what he's doing, no one is going to touch him," Gordon said. "A bad day for him is ninth, 10th, or 11th. We certainly don't like to consider ourselves out of it until it is mathematically impossible, and right now it is not." Gordon is the defending race winner, needing a late bump-and-run on Rusty Wallace to score the victory last year. Wallace wants to redeem himself on Saturday night, but will have to come from the middle of the pack to do it after qualifying 20th.
(Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)