JEFF GORDON LEADS ALL-CHEVY TOP FIVE STARTING ORDER

Avondale, AZ - Jeff Gordon, No. 24 DuPont Monte Carlo SS, claimed his second pole of the 2006 NASCAR Nextel Cup Series (NNCS) season today at Phoenix International Raceway (PIR). The number one starting spot for Sunday's Checker Auto Parts 500 is the 56th of his career and his second at PIR.

It is an all-Chevy top-five starters for the 312-lap race with Kevin Harvick, No. 29 Reese's Cookie Monte Carlo SS lining up along side Gordon. Row two will be No. 25, Brian Vickers, No. 25 GMAC Monte Carlo SS with Dale Earnhardt, Jr., No. 8 Budweiser Monte Carlo SS outside in the fourth starting spot.

Rounding out the top-five is Joe Nemechek, No. 01 U.S. Army Monte Carlo SS. Kyle Busch, No. 5 Kellogg's Monte Carlo SS will roll-off ninth, the inside of row five.

The 312-lap/312-mile/500 kilometer race is scheduled to start at 1:25 p.m. MDT on Sunday. Live television coverage will be provided by NBC TV. Both MRN Radio and XM Satellite Radio will bring live lap-by-lap over the airwaves.

TONY RAINES, NO.96 DLP® HDTV CHEVROLET:

HOW WAS YOUR QUALIFYING LAP? "We were real loose off both laps. I got loose on the second lap off of turn two pretty good. We were fighting that in practice. We definitely made the car drive better, but we didn't get enough of it to run better. We'll see where that ends up. It isn't going to be real good, but we were pretty happy with it in race trim, so we'll just work on it and go from there."

KYLE BUSCH, NO. 5 KELLOGG'S MONTE CARLO SS:

"We weren't that good in practice but it wasn't for the lack of effort for sure. The Kellogg's guys have done an awesome job for me. The biggest thing is when we tried to do a mock qualifying run, we missed the front spring setup, we didn't hit them the way we wanted to. We drug real bad and just didn't get the lap that we needed. We ran out of time then and just were not able to get back out there. That was basically a race lap, we never really did any qualifying like all the other teams did.

"This is actually the car is the same one we won the pole with here this spring. It was very, very fast, we were very happy with it. This time around we will have to see how it does. It didn't qualify on the pole but that isn't what we are here to do, we are here to win the race. Hopefully Sunday it will be better and we will leave here with the victory like we did last year."

BRIAN VICKERS, NO. 25 GMAC MONTE CARLO:

"We will see here shortly if it is as good a lap as last week. It was definitely a good lap, just a little loose off, I couldn't get the throttle down in practice, it was just spinning the tires. We were just losing time when that was happening so we made the changes and thought we had it fixed so I got real aggressive the first lap just to see where we stood. Obviously as you saw coming off of two we didn't get all of it fixed but Lance (McGrew) and the guys did a good job and got most of it fixed. Just a little easier with the throttle on the second lap but trying to get enough of it down so we could still run a good lap. It was a good lap, it wasn't a perfect lap but it was good and we will see if it was good enough."

JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DUPONT MONTE CARLO SS:

"It has been a really spectacular week and now the honeymoon is continuing here at Phoenix this weekend. We are having fun, the team brought a great race car, we have been good all day so we will see. We drew a late number so that certainly helped. The guys made some great adjustments on the DuPont Cheverolet so just keep our fingers crossed that we can pull another out. We have "been on the pole here and would love to get another one but what we really want it that win on Sunday.

"Harvick (Kevin) came close to us. He knocked us off the pole earlier this year. He got a great lap there at the end.

"I am just so proud of the guys on the DuPont Chevrolet to pull it off and get us a pole here at Phoenix. It is a place has eluded us for a long time. This is a good first step to us having a good weekend. It feels great, it feels really good."

TRAVIS KVAPIL, NO. 32 TIDE/DOWNY MONTE CARLO SS:

"It is never easy qualifying. It is very stressful, it stinks and I hate it. Friday's have been really stressful for the Tide Chevrolet this year. We thought we had pretty good speed today in practice but you never know until you go out there and do it. Anything can happen. The sun is really challenging, the track is faster than it was this afternoon in practice. But the sun is always a challenge. I am surprised we ran that fast, it didn't feel that great, but I am happy we did ok."

DALE EARNHARDT, JR, NO. 8 BUDWEISER MONTE CARLO SS:

"We had a struggle there in practice but the guys did a lot of work between and changed a lot of things on the car. But it paid off. We had a good handling car there and were able to get a good, fast lap in. A lot of credit goes to the team there

JOE NEMECHEK, NO. 01 U.S. ARMY MONTE CARLO SS:

"Right now, for the last few weeks, we've really been getting our program turned around. In qualifying today, my car was awesome. We made about five changes to the car before qualifying because it just wasn't quite there and then man, we hit 'em spot on today."

POST QUALIFYING TRANSCRIPTS:

BRIAN VICKERS, NO. 25 GMAC MONTE CARLO SS - Qualified 3rd:

"It's obviously been two good weeks for the GMAC team. We've had good cars in qualifying. We were still a little bit loose today. We were fighting that a little bit in practice. We made some changes. I got kind of aggressive on the first lap to see if they worked. We didn't get quite as fixed as we wanted to coming off the corner. That's why we were so slow the first lap. I just took it a little bit easier the second lap. I felt it was a good lap. I didn't feel it was a perfect lap. Usually in the Cup series, if it's not a perfect lap, you're not going to go to the pole."

AS TONY STEWART HAS PROVEN, WINNING RACES ALMOST BENEFITS THE GUY WHO IS NOT IN THE CHASE AT THIS TIME IN THE SEASON. DO YOU FEEL THAT WAY? "Yeah, that's a good point. I think when you're in a race for a championship, sometimes you get more defensive than offensive. And you've got to be careful of that. That can be a good thing. It can keep you out of trouble, but it can also keep you from getting really good finishes. There's got to be a happy medium there. Tony is not running for points so they're hanging it all out and going for it and making aggressive pit calls during the race along with a lot of other things that they probably wouldn't if they were in the Chase. Hopefully we'll be able to capitalize on the same thing."

WITH TWO RACES LEFT IN THE SEASON AND WITH HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS, IS IT GETTING EMOTIONAL OR YOU? "Like anybody who is moving from one job to another; and we've all been in that position, at times it is bittersweet because of the personal and emotional connections I have with Hendrick Motorsports. But at the same time, I'm kind of excited about a fresh new start and a new opportunity."

DO YOU HAVE ANYTHING LINED UP FOR OWNER POINTS NEXT YEAR? "As of right now, not that I'm aware of. In your terms, I guess we're just going to wing it. I don't know what they have in store. I don't even know what the possibilities of getting owner points are before the Daytona 500. Obviously that would be nice, but right now we're focusing on putting the best car on the race track and on qualifying the first five races. After that, we'll go back to the normal deal and just start racing."

MOST RACES HERE HAVE BEEN WON BY DRIVERS OUTSIDE THE TOP 10. DOES THAT WORRY YOU AT ALL? "I don't really know why that is. Sometimes you see that by qualifying poorly, you'll be more aggressive in the pits and on pit calls and take more chances. You're usually in a pitting war if you're toward the tail end of the lap have nothing to lose as far as track position and you have an opportunity to make your car better that way.

But it doesn't mean that all 43 or 53 of us or whatever it was today, aren't going to qualify the best we can. The better you qualify, the better the pit stall and the closer you are to the front. But qualifying, especially since we don't impound anymore, is not necessarily an indication of how the race is going to play out."

WHAT IS THE PROGRESS AT RED BULL OR ENCOURAGEMENT FOR YOURSELF ON WHAT THEY'RE DOING RIGHT NOW? "What I've seen is pretty much what you'll have seen. I haven't been involved with those guys yet. I'm focused more on the No. 25 car. I think that they've definitely had their ups and downs and have missed some races - some because of rain - for AJ Almendinger at Texas, it was disappointing. But it was a tough situation. It was his first attempt at a Cup start on one of probably the hardest tracks to qualify - and obviously with a brand new team. So I don't think it's any indication of what's to come, I just think it was an accumulation of a lot of different scenarios piled on top of each other that just kind of caught them off guard. But all in all, it looks like things are moving along well over there. Everybody is pumped and excited."

JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DUPONT MONTE CARLO SS - Pole Sitter:

"It was a great day for us from the time we unloaded the DuPont Chevrolet. We made a couple of race runs there early on and felt like we were good and maybe could have been a little bit better. But we'll work on that tomorrow. But then we put it into the qualifying mode and it was just a rocket from that point on. We knew we drew a great number to go out late as well, but we were sweating it pretty good there with Harvick and a couple of other guys that could lay down some great laps. And Harvick knocked me off the pole at Loudon when we thought we had a great lap. So, anything's possible. I felt like it was a good lap. The only thing about going out late is the sun kind of blinds you going into Turn 1. So I missed Turn the first lap because I overshot the corner. And the second lap I felt like I hit my marks pretty good. The car just did everything I wanted to do. It turned good and drove off good and it was just awesome."

YOU HAVEN'T WON HERE BEFORE. IN THE WEEK YOU'VE HAD ALREADY - WINNING THE POLE AND GETTING MARRIED EARLIER THIS WEEK - DO YOU FEEL THINGS ARE TURNING FOR YOU AT PIR? "We've been on the pole here before. It doesn't guarantee anything but I feel like the progress that our team has made on our set-ups and the way we're working together right now, that we're really capable of winning just about anywhere. And to just feel how good the car has been throughout the day today, I'm very excited about getting out there on the track and making some more race runs tomorrow to really know what kind of car we're going to have on Sunday. But I felt like Jimmie (Johnson) was probably one of the best cars in his race runs today. We'll compare some notes but so far I'm feeling really good. This is a track where we've never really been awesome at, but we have been close to being able to win here. Kenseth took two tires on us one time and beat us out and we just couldn't overcome the track position that we lost by taking four (tires) but I felt like we were good enough to win there. So you don't always have to have the best race car. You've got to have the whole package - the car and the strategy and the pit stops and everything else to go along with it."

YOU ARE 157 POINT BACK. HOW DO YOU KEEP PUSHING WITH JUST TWO RACES LEFT? "Our focus is just to go out there and win races. We're just going to get after it as hard as we can and try to lead laps and win the race. We certainly have a lot less pressure on us than the top three or four guys. And so we don't really have anything to lose other than to just try and go out there and win because for us to finish fifth or fourth is not near as important to us as winning it or getting ourselves prepared for next year to try to win it. It's all about winning it for us whether it's the race or the championship. We certainly know mathematically we're not out of it. But we know its going to take us having a perfect couple of races and those other guys are going to have to have some problems at the same time."

WHEN YOU ANNOUNCED YOUR ENGAGEMENT AT SONOMA, YOU WON THE RACE. IS THIS A GOOD VIBE FOR YOU? "So far it's feeling good. It's been a great week I can tell you that. So the vibe has just been carrying on through the weekend and I hope it carries on longer than that. It's just like what happened in Sonoma. We've been holding on to that and excited about telling our families and friends and letting that out of the bag. It's kind of like it with this. We've been planning and preparing and really wanting to get that part of our lives and the excitement and everything that was built up about it, but we couldn't tell anybody. So now that's out there and so it's kind of a relief. And then life is good at the same time and the race team is good too."

IS THERE ANY WAY YOU CAN ANTICIPATE TWO TIRE STOPS? WHEN YOU'RE THE LEADER YOU'RE LIKE A SITTING DUCK OUT THERE "You'd have to ask Steve Letarte that one. He's making those calls. At tracks like this, being the leader is certainly not the best place to be. And that's why if you're the leader, you've got to hope you have a really awesome race car so that if you do take four tires and they take two, you can overcome it. Or, if you put two tires on, you can overcome the two that you didn't put on. That's what we're going to do is just try to get our car to be the best it possibly can so we don't have to be so dependent on that strategy being absolutely perfect; and then make the best calls we can. I've got to give Steve Letarte as much information as I can to let him know what kind of car we've got."

WHAT'S YOUR HISTORY LIKE IN THE COPPERWORLD? "I don't know all the statistics but I know I've won the Silver Crown race here and was in a photo finish in the Midget race that same weekend here. I've won here in the Busch Series and in a Silver Crown car. It's kind of the same thing at Homestead when they're in a Busch car as well. So I know we're capable of doing it and we've been good enough to win it here before - not many times, but one that I definitely know of. We've got to put that kind of effort out again this weekend. But so far, to sit on the pole and have the kind of car we've had today definitely encourages me as to what type of weekend we can have."

KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 29 REESE'S COOKIES MONTE CARLO SS - Qualified 2nd:

ON QUALIFYING EFFORT: "I enjoy racing here just for the fact that I have a lot of experience here, I grew up racing here. Today went really well. I just kind of overshot turn one. It was kind of hard getting in there with the sun so I gave it all up there. But all in all, the car was really good, it has really good grip up off the corners and really good in race trim. We are looking forward to Sunday.

ON CONFIDENCE OF BEING ABLE TO BACK UP APRIL WIN WITH ANOTHER VICTORY: "This is the same car and the same setup we did at Loudon so we feel really good and just kind of backed up what we thought we could run here earlier this morning in race trim. We feel really good, but obviously, everybody has made a lot of gains since the first race here of the year. We feel like we have made some gains as well and have a better car, better engines and better setups. Everybody gets better every week so we just kind of see where we fall, but everybody felt good in practice so we will just see what happens."

ON WITH STARTING ON FRONT ROW AT PIR AND HOW THAT IMPACTS THOUGHTS ON MAYBE "MIRACLE" OF WINNING BOTH CHAMPIONSHIPS MIGHT HAPPEN: "I don't know that it is going to be a miracle. You don't get to this point by having miracles happen. You get to this point by putting every week together and obviously some things are going to have to happen. It is by far not going to be a miracle, you have to run good week in and week out to put yourself in that spot. We as a team are going to keep doing what we have been doing and see where it all falls in the end. You never can tell, if we could, we could ask Alan Kulwicki, I believe that all started here, didn't it?"

ON PAYING ATTENTION TO WHAT OTHER CHASE CONTENDERS ARE DOING: "I don't think we get too caught up what everybody else is doing. It is hard enough trying to control what you have going yourself and your race team. No matter how good or how bad the week is, you try to stay even keep across the board, to approach the next week with the same mindset that you did the week before. Before, it is maybe not the right attitude, or maybe it is, but we feel like it keeps your spirits up and your team pumped up even if you had a bad week the week before. You can compete week in and week out but you can't get too low or too high on your emotions."