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Jeff Gordon wins NASCAR pole in New Hampshire

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Jeff Gordon came into the media center after winning the pole in New Hampshire and found that the moderator was not yet at his post.

No problem: Gordon began interviewing himself.

The four-time NASCAR champion was in a familiar position at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon on Friday after qualifying for his 72nd career pole position. Gordon will be joined in the front row by Kyle Busch, with Tony Stewart and Brian Vickers behind them.

“I think we surprised ourselves a little bit with this pole,” said Gordon, whose last championship was in 2001 – before the current Sprint Cup format. “This is something we didn’t expect. Think we expected to be strong in the race here, but for qualifying, we haven’t sat on the pole at a non-restricted track in quite some time. So, this was a big one.”

Gordon, who heads into the race Sunday ranked 12th in the Sprint Cup standings, ran a lap at 134.911 mph. Busch was second at 134.753.

Gordon, who barely qualified for the Chase, is hoping a strong finish in New Hampshire will help him overcome a 35th-place finish in Chicago, when he hit the wall with about 80 laps to go. He was the only one of the 12 Chase drivers who didn’t finish in the top 18.

Buescher wins Trucks

James Buescher completed a NASCAR Trucks season sweep at Kentucky Speedway in Sparta, using strong restarts to stay in contention before he broke free to win the wreck-filled race.

It was the fourth career series victory for Buescher, who also won at the track June 28. Parker Kligerman was second, followed by rookie Ty Dillon, pole-sitter Joey Coulter and Brian Scott.

Only 14 of 36 trucks finished on the lead lap.

Edmonton race folds

The Edmonton IndyCar race has folded. Promoter Octane Motorsports said that it won’t stage the race next year, and city officials said they won’t search for a replacement promoter.

Octane said to survive the event it needed a promise of more spectators and more support from local businesses, and that it was wasn’t confident that would happen.