Red-Hot Gordon Wins Brickyard Pole In Dramatic Fashion

Jeff Gordon gave himself and the crowd a scare Thursday, and still won the pole for Saturday’s Brickyard 400 with a record lap.

Gordon, the popular winner of the inaugural NASCAR stock car race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway last August, earned his series-leading eighth pole of the season and the 10th of his career with a speed of 172.536 mph.

That broke the record of 172.414 set last year by Rick Mast and was good enough to relegate Bobby Hamilton, driving Richard Petty’s Pontiac Grand Prix, to second with a lap of 172.222.

Sixty-year-old A.J. Foyt posted a speed of 166.193 mph to rank 47th out of the 48 drivers who took part in the first round of time trials for the richest race in Winston Cup history.

Gordon’s pole-winning lap was anything but routine. When Gordon’s Dupont Chevrolet zoomed into the final turn, the rear end began to slide toward the wall. Gordon, who turns 24 today, found himself nearly sideways at more than 160 mph as he came off the fourth turn before the car straightened out.

The crowd was estimated at more than 150,000.