Jeff Gordon Snares Seventh Bud Pole of 2007 Season at Martinsville

Team Chevy Drivers Capture Four of Top-Five and Eight of Top-10 Starting Positions for Subway 500

Martinsville, Va. - Jeff Gordon, No. 24 DuPont Impala SS captured the pole for the Subway 500 at Martinsville Speedway. It is the seventh Bud pole for the four-time NASCAR Nextel Cup Series (NNCS) champion and the 63rd number one starting position of Gordon's career.

Gordon went out 28th in the order of the 48 cars attempting to qualify for the 43-car field of race six in the Chase for the Nextel Cup and the 32nd race of the 2007 season. It is his sixth pole in 30 races at Martinsville.

Team Chevy drivers captured four of the top-five and eight of the top-10 starting spots at Martinsville. Five of the nine Team Chevy drivers involved in the Chase are qualified in the top-10 for Sunday's race.

Martin Truex Jr., No. 1 Bass Pro Shops/Tracker Boats Impala SS, will start second, on the outside of row one. His front-row starting position equals a Truex's career best qualifying effort.

Kevin Harvick, No. 29 Shell-Pennzoil Impala SS, qualified third for the Subway 500 to score his career-best starting position at Martinsville.

Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Lowe's Impala SS, will start fourth in Sunday's race. The outside second row qualifying effort continues Johnson's series-leading top-10 starting position streak alive at 22.

Gordon leads the Chase standings heading in to the Subway 500 by 68 points over teammate. Johnson. Truex is 11th in the standings, 378 points out of the lead and Harvick sits eighth in the standings, 328 points down to Gordon.

Kyle Busch, No. 5 Kellogg's/CARQUEST Impala SS, currently sixth in the Chase, 280 points out of the lead, qualified sixth at Martinsville.

Dale Earnhardt, Jr., No. 8 Budweiser Impala SS, qualified seventh for the Subway 500 with J.J. Yeley, No. 18 Interstate Batteries Impala SS starting along side in the eighth starting position.

Tony Raines, No. 96 DLP HDTV Impala SS will roll of 10th on Sunday afternoon.

Jeff Burton, No. 31 AT&T Impala SS, currently 10th in the Chase standings, 366 points out of the lead, will start 18th in the Subway 500. Clint Bowyer, riding third in the Chase standings, just 78 points behind the leader will start his No. 07 Jack Daniel's Impala SS in the 21st position.

Denny Hamlin, No. 11 FedEx Freight Impala, the ninth place driver in the Chase, 349 down to Gordon, qualified 30th for the 43-car field. Tony Stewart, No. 20 Home Depot Impala SS, the fourth-place driver in the standings, 198 points behind the leader, will roll off 34th in Sunday's race.

The Subway 500 is scheduled to start at 1:30 p.m. on Sunday with live coverage provided by ABC TV, MRN Radio and Sirius Satellite Radio.

JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DUPONT IMPALA SS WINS POLE FOR SUBWAY 500 AT MARTINSVILLE SPEEDWAY

Jeff Gordon Pole Winner's Press Conference at Martinsville Audio File

ON POLE WINNING RUN AT MARTINSVILLE: "It was a tricky day with the limited practice. Steve Letarte (crew chief), it was a coin flip, but he made the call to put the qualifying trim. With such limited practice (due to the weather) those three laps I had on the track today were very important. I felt like we had a great car then and that we had a shot at the pole today. Qualifying, throughout my career, but especially this year, it seems to really contribute greatly to our success. When we qualify well, you can see it in the stats, that it plays a factor in having better runs for us. I am excited that we qualified good today. I was honestly really kinda beating myself up, because I knew what lap we ran in practice. I felt like I had an idea of what it was going to take to be on the pole. I would have guess the high eighties, 19.8, I went out there trying to run in the .80s and over drove it in to turn one and slid up the race track. That was to me, pretty devastating because, to me, that was the best lap as far as the tires, the grip, temperature and everything. I felt like I really blew it, so the last lap, I just make sure I made the entry of the corner, the car was getting through the middle and the exit so good, that I just needed to get it in to the corner, I really just backed the pace down and somehow pulled out a good second lap and good enough for the pole, which I just didn't think it was going to be. Maybe a lot of other guys fought that same thing and that was why it wasn't down in the .80s."

ON ALWAYS KEEPING MARTINSVILLE ON HIS RACE SCHEDULE IF HE EVER WENT TO A SCALED BACK SCHEDULE: "If that was ever the case, Martinsville would be on my schedule. That is where Mark (Martin) and I differ. I love Martinsville. This is a track like I mentioned earlier, where we just hit on some things early in my career and as much as some guys struggle, it is quite the opposite for me here. I just really like this track and when you like a track and you run well at a track, all you have to do is go fine-tune your setup to make it better each time. I think you can stay towards the front. I wasn't sure with this new car what it was going to be like, but luckily it is fitting well for us."

ON HOW MUCH OF AN ADVANTAGE OF STARTING THE POLE IS IT IN SUNDAY'S RACE: "That number one pit stall is pretty important here. I think about every time I have sat on the pole here, I have never led the first lap. Can't say that it really contributes to that great track position but it certainly doesn't hurt to be up toward the front. I think the most important part of it is the number one pit stall, because even if you come in a couple of spots behind, you have either have the opportunity to make it out first or make up spots, but more importantly, you stay out of trouble on pit road. Here, pit road can be treacherous. We say incidents last week in Charlotte, you are only going to see more of those here on Sunday. That number one pit stall can be huge as far as just trying to save your fenders and things like that. It doesn't guarantee anything, we have to work hard to get the car working the way we need it to so we can take advantage of that number one stall."

ON THE EFFECT HIS CONTINUED SUCCESS HAS ON THE COMPETITION: "I look at that a couple of different ways. Yes of course, who wouldn't enjoy being able to get on a streak, especially when it is most important which is during the championship Chase. But at the same time, sometimes that motivates guys and gets them ticked off and makes them push out there even harder. I want to make sure that we don't get complacent in it, but that we just continue to push and run our races the way we have all year. I feel like this team has been consistent because we have been very smart, we haven't tried to exceed the limits of what we are capable of. If we go out there and we have a fifth place car, it is important for us to bring home a fifth place finish. I think that is why we have been able to be very consistent. We when do have the cars capable of winning, we have been able to capitalize on that as well. I just don't want that to change any routine that we are doing. I am not focused on t rying to demoralize anybody, I am just focused on trying to get the most out of our car and our equipment."

MARTIN TRUEX JR., NO. 1 BASS PRO SHOPS / TRACKER BOATS IMPALA SS QUALIFIED 2ND

Martin Truex Jr. Post-Qualifiying Quotes at Martinsville Audio File

Martin Truex Jr., No. 1 Bass Pro Shops / Tracker Boats Impala SS qualified 2nd and met discusses his qualifying run, approach to the Chase, and momentum going into next year.

Select quotes from driver interview:

ON HIS QUALIFYING RUN: "It was a good lap. We didn't get to do a qualifying run in practice and normally we scuff the tires here, so I was a little worried about not being able to do that. But when I got up to speed, it felt good and I pushed it a little hard on the first timed lap and the car stuck really well so I was really happy with it. I tried a little too hard on the second lap and slid the left front brake going into (Turn) 1 and lost some time. But the car drove really good. I was really happy and not sure if I could really make it any better. So, the guys did a good job for me without making a qualifying run or anything, they pretty much hit the nail right on the head.

"I'm a little disappointed to be second again. This is the third time for us this year. I really want to get a pole and get my guys in the Bud Shootout next year. But I'm real proud of them and happy with the run and I've just got to thank the guys. They did a great job for me."

ON THE IMPORTANCE OF STARTING UP FRONT AT MARTINSVILLE "It's important to start up front any time you're at a short track, especially at a track like this where it's really hard to pass. If you get out front, you can kind of save your stuff a little bit. I've always had trouble with brakes here because I've started mid-pack towards the back and just had to run too hard to stay up on the lead lap and try to pass cars. So, if we can start near the front I think it will help us a bunch."

ON THE CHANGING OF TRACK TEMPERATURE DUE TO WEATHER "It'll get a little bit slicker but this place changes throughout the weekend anyway with the more you run, the more rubber gets on the track, so it changes pretty drastically throughout the weekend anyway, so the weather is not really a huge issue."

WITH FIVE RACES LEFT, WHAT'S OUT THERE FOR YOU TO ACCOMPLISH? "We want to do the best job we can. We want to move up in the points. Certainly we're not happy with the position we're in right now. We're just going to go out there and try to win races; the same thing we've been doing all year, really. We want to be the best that we can and do the best we can for our sponsors and DEI. Hopefully we can move up a few spots in the points. The more the better. And not really much has changed for us as far as how we go about our racing and what we want to accomplish."

HOW SURPRISED ARE YOU ABOUT HOW QUICKLY THE FIELD HAS SPREAD OUT AFTER JUST FIVE RACES? "It's been crazy. I know for us it's been just a lot of unfortunate things happening. It doesn't seem like we've had anything go right in any race since New Hampshire. So, it's been frustrating but at the same time, my guys have been doing a great job. We've had fast cars every week. I think the worst we ran was at Charlotte last week. We were sitting there as an eighth or ninth place car toward the end of the race when we had our troubles. They've been doing a great job. There really hasn't been anything we've done that's taken us out of it as just as just crazy stuff happening and that's happened to a lot of guys. There have been some freak accidents at the end of a couple of races. Kansas was wild for everybody with the rain and everybody seemed to start pitting right before it rained and it just screwed the whole field up and really threw a monkey wrench into everyone's plans. So, it's just been kind of crazy; especially for our team. But we'll just continue to work hard and we're real pleased with the way we've performed throughout the Chase, it's just the points aren't there."

KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 29 SHELL / PENNZOIL IMPALA SS QUALIFIES THIRD

Kevin Harvick Post-Qualifiying Quotes at Martinsville Audio File

Kevin Harvick, No. 29 Shell / Pennzoil Impala SS Qualified 3rd, and discusses his qualifying run, the remaining races in the Chase, and having bad luck in the Chase.

Select quotes from driver interview:

YOU BATTLED RAIN THIS AFTERNOON AND DIDN'T GET A LOT OF PRACTICE TIME. CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THE TRACK AND THE CONDITIONS? "For us it was not too big a deal just for the fact that we ran really well here last time, so we had good notes to go back on. We spent the first four or five laps of practice kind of with the splitter on the ground, so we didn't get to practice but about three laps. We got what we needed to and they made some good adjustments based upon what we did the first race here and everything worked out."

WAS THERE ANYTHING FROM THE FIRST RACE HERE WITH THE CAR THAT WORKS FOR THIS WEEKEND OR ARE YOU BASICALLY STARTING OVER? "No, it's pretty close to exactly how we raced here the first time, other than the door foam won't catch on fire so we moved that up off the exhaust pipe so hopefully we don't have any smoldering flames coming out of the right side door this time (laughter)."

WITH FIVE RACES LEFT IN THE CHASE, WHAT DO YOU HOPE TO ACCOMPLISH IN THE REMAINDER OF THE SEASON? "Oh, you should have been at my house last night and you'll see why they call us racers. We raced go-karts at my house and you would have thought we were racing for a million dollars. We just like to race. We just like to go out and that's what drives us all is the thrill of the competition and pushing yourself to beat the next guy and that's really what drives me. Everybody talks about points racing and this and that, but you just go out there and you race just as hard as you can to get the best finish that you can every week and anything less than that you're disappointed with. So, for us, we've had a miserable Chase -- not performance-based by any means. Last week we had three flat tires. At Loudon we had two flat tires. We had a flat tire at Dover. Those things, well, we just laugh about them now because you just don't know why that happened at the particular times that happened. Maybe we've stepped the performance of the cars up getting into the Chase. The first few race s we've run well at tracks we normally don't run well at; we just don't have anything to show for it."