Gordon gets help from above

Jeff Gordon started from the back of the field in NASCAR’s first road race of the Nextel Cup season after his team was penalized for a technical violation. This time, he’ll start from the pole.

A misting rain that hovered above Watkins Glen International at Watkins Glen, N.Y., on Friday became too heavy by midafternoon and forced NASCAR to cancel qualifying for Sunday’s Centurion Boats at The Glen.

As the runaway points leader, that placed Gordon up front in his No. 24 DuPont Chevrolet as the top 35 cars in the 43-car field were set by points.

The cancellation left Denny Hamlin on the front row alongside Gordon. Matt Kenseth, Jeff Burton, and Tony Stewart round out the top five.

•Juan Pablo Montoya, a Nextel Cup rookie who made the jump from Formula One to stock cars, won a Busch Series race in Mexico in March and took the Cup race at Sonoma in June. A win in either the Busch race here today or the Centurion Boats at The Glen on Sunday would make him the first NASCAR driver to win three road races in a single season.

•Nextel Cup driver J.J. Yeley officially cast his hat in the free-agent ring, admitting he will not return to Joe Gibbs Racing next season.

IRL

Tony Kanaan grabbed the pole for today’s Meijer Kentucky 300 in Sparta, Ky., with a blistering qualifying speed of 218.086 mph, well ahead of teammate and series points leader Dario Franchitti, who qualified second at 216.810.

Champ Car

Sixteen-year-old American driver John Edwards broke the Champ Car Atlantic championship qualifying record with a best lap time of 122.207 mph and won the provisional pole for Sunday’s Atlantic season finale at Road America.

•Sebastien Bourdais, chasing an unprecedented fourth consecutive Champ Car World Series title, said he will drive for Scuderia Toro Rosso in F1 next year.