Fast Break

NASCAR

Gordon won’t give up

Jeff Gordon is looking for small victories.

Winning the pole at Dover (Del.) International Speedway was a nice one to get.

The four-time Cup champion took the top spot with a lap of 157.061 mph Friday, a sorely needed lift as he tries to snap his season-long winless drought and make a big move up the Chase for the Championship standings.

Gordon is 11th in the points race, 99 points behind co-leaders Carl Edwards and Jimmie Johnson.

“We’re certainly not out of the championship, we understand that,” Gordon said. “It’s too early to ever count yourself out of that. We’re too good of a team to ever count ourselves out. We would never do that mentally.”

Seven Chase drivers will start in the top 11 on Sunday. Denny Hamlin starts third, Greg Biffle fifth, Clint Bowyer sixth, Matt Kenseth eighth, Dale Earnhardt Jr. 10th, and Kyle Busch is 11th.

Golf

Wie on path back to LPGA

Michelle Wie breezed through the final round of an LPGA sectional qualifying tournament on a scorching day in the desert, shooting a steady 1-under-par 71 to tie for fourth.

Completing the first step toward earning her tour card, she was 8 under after 72 holes. Wie, 18, needed only to finish in the top 30 to advance to a final qualifying event in Florida in December.

The scene at Mission Hills CC in Rancho Mirage, Calif., was far different than in the past for Wie, who became a celebrity at 13 when she played in the final group in the Kraft Nabisco Championship.

This time around, she was just grinding it out along with 163 others hoping to pass the first test toward earning a tour card.

Wie wasn’t able to earn her card this season through sponsor exemptions, not having won enough money to finish the equivalent of 80th on the LPGA Tour money list.