Gordon, on a hot streak, hopes it continues

Jeff Gordon rolled to his third consecutive NASCAR Nextel Cup pole position Friday, and former series champion Dale Jarrett was among those headed home from Richmond, Va., as Toyota teams again struggled to compete.

Gordon, a four-time series champion, will start on the pole for the fourth consecutive week – he started first as the series points leader when qualifying was rained out a Texas – and for the fifth time in six races. He’s also won two races in a row, and has opened a 203-point lead over second-place Jeff Burton after nine races.

“I’m kind of blown away right now with the roll that we’re on,” Gordon said.

Jarrett was blown away, too, by almost everyone. His Toyota finished 47th among the 50 cars attempting to make the field, with a fast lap at just 123.226 mph.

The 1999 champion, who used up his last past champion’s provisional last week at Talladega, missed a race for the first time since 1994 in North Wilkesboro, N.C.

“It’s tough, no doubt about it,” the 50-year-old driver said. “You’ve got to be on top of your game to race out here at this day and time.”

Especially the way Gordon is running these days in his Car of Tomorrow Impala, or his Monte Carlo. The next fastest qualifier was Carl Edwards in a Ford.

“I don’t know what it is,” Gordon said. “All I know is everything I’m doing, I’m not going to stop doing it. We’ve been on some good rolls over the years – it’s been a long time, obviously – and as competitive as the series is today, it surprises me when somebody gets on this type of a roll. I don’t know how to describe or explain it.”

Scott Riggs qualified third in a Dodge, followed by the Chevrolet of Jimmie Johnson and Kasey Kahne in another Dodge. The rest of the top 10 includes the Chevys of Denny Hamlin, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Martin Truex and Mark Martin, and Dave Blaney’s Toyota.

McMurray in spotlight again

Jamie McMurray jumped back onto the radar this week when he was fined $25,000 for bumping and banging with Kevin Harvick at Talladega.

After a disastrous 2006 season that had many people labeling McMurray a major bust, his career appears to be back on track. He has five top-10 finishes and is seventh in the points.

“It’s like night and day from last year, 100 percent better,” McMurray said. “And if you knew why it was this way, and why everything is working, then you’d never have any problems and everything would always be perfect.”

McMurray thought everything would be perfect when he moved to Roush Fenway Racing at the start of last season. He fought hard to get into the ride, negotiating an early release from his existing contract with car owner Chip Ganassi, and expected to instantly become a championship contender.

But it never happened and McMurray struggled to fit into the organization. He inherited 2004 champion Kurt Busch’s crew and equipment, but lacked chemistry with crew chief Jimmy Fennig and struggled to drive the cars.

Jack Roush made an early crew chief switch. Things never improved and McMurray asked Roush for another crew chief change for the final 10 weeks. Because McMurray had run through three crew chiefs in one season, Roush decided to let McMurray handpick who he wanted to run his team this year.

McMurray definitely did his homework, making a list of every crew chief from all three of NASCAR’s top series. He got referrals and cross-referenced, constantly looking for the perfect fit.

Turned out the one name missing from his list – Larry Carter – was the answer. Because Carter was working behind the scenes at Michael Waltrip Racing, McMurray overlooked him and didn’t have him under initial consideration. By the time his name crossed McMurray’s radar in December, McMurray had a tough sell to make and only a little bit of time to do it but Carter came on board.

Busch Series

At Richmond, Clint Bowyer won the race off pit road with about 28 laps to go and easily went on to his fifth career NASCAR Busch Series victory.

Matt Kenseth dominated much of the latter part of the race, but he pitted along with the other leaders after the final caution flew on lap 223. Carl Edwards and David Ragan assumed the top two spots by staying out, but their stay in front didn’t last long.

Kenseth came out fifth, behind Bowyer and Jeff Burton, after a mishap with the jack on Kenseth’s right front tire. Edwards and Ragan faded, but Bowyer remained strong, taking the lead with 19 laps to go and winning by 1.483 seconds.