Jeff Gordon ends drought, captures pole
Jeff Gordon felt like a rookie.
In one of those hard-to-believe stats except for maybe the most diehard Gordon fans, the four-time NASCAR champion had gone 47 races without a pole – the longest drought of his career.
All it took was a trip to top sponsor DuPont’s backyard to put him back on top. Gordon took the top spot for Sunday’s Dover 400 with a lap of 156.162 mph Friday at Dover (Del.) International Speedway, his first pole since June 24, 2005, on the road course at Sonoma, Calif.
“It feels like my first pole ever,” Gordon said. “When it goes by for a while, you feel like you lost that magic touch or that combination that it took to get on poles.”
Gordon is fourth in the points standings heading into the second race of NASCAR’s 10-man Chase for the Nextel Cup championship. Maybe a new chassis for the No. 24 Chevrolet this weekend helped him.
“(It’s) really the best car we have out there right now for this type of race track,” he said.
Scott Riggs will start second.
Other than Gordon, it wasn’t really a strong qualifying effort for the other nine drivers in the Chase.
Series leader Kevin Harvick will start 25th. No. 2 Denny Hamlin starts 23rd. Matt Kenseth enters third and will start third. Ryan Newman will start fourth.
Mark Martin was the only other driver in the top-10 of the points standings (sixth) who will start on the first five rows (ninth). Kyle Busch, the last of the 10 in the standings, was back in 27th.
Champ car
Dan Clarke turned a lap of 126.585 mph in the first qualifying session, guaranteeing him a front-row starting spot in Sunday’s Champ Car Grand Prix of Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wis.
Heavy rain provided an extra challenge for Champ Car series drivers during a practice session in the morning. The rain stopped in time for qualifying, but there was still plenty of water on the track, causing spray trails that make it harder for drivers to recognize their braking points going into each turn.
“The minute it gets wet, those visual markers that are ahead of you go away,” Clarke said. “You suddenly start realizing: I should have really taken in some information of what’s around me.”
Charles Zwolsman was second fastest at 126.063 mph.
Alex Tagliani posted the third-fastest speed of 124.006 mph.
The final field will be set in a second qualifying session today.
Da Matta heads home
About 90 percent of people who sustain a head injury as severe as Cristiano da Matta’s never wake up.
Many of those who do spend the rest of their lives in a vegetative state.
That’s why Dr. Randall Johnson considers da Matta’s recovery a “miracle.”
Da Matta was in a coma for nearly a month after a deer wandered onto the track during an Aug. 3 test session at Road America, hitting his car and causing a crash.
These days, da Matta is walking, talking and playing his guitar – and as of Friday morning, on a private plane home to Miami.
Johnson, who performed emergency neurosurgery on da Matta seven weeks ago, said the driver still tires easily but is “doing fantastic” and can expect continued improvement.