Jeff Gordon Tops Qualifying Again

For the third straight time Jeff Gordon will lead the field down to the start in Martinsville. Last year Gordon started both Martinsville races on the pole and translated that starting advantage into a pair of wins. Can he keep the Martinsville hot streak going?

Only 44 drivers attempted qualifying so only one went home. That dubious honor goes to Todd Bodine who turned in a faster qualifying lap than any of the provisional starters but missed making the field by .05 seconds.

Slowest driver in qualifying this week is Kirk Shelmerdine who will roll off 41st on Sunday. Kirk was more than 1.2 seconds off the pace. At this rate we can expect him to get lapped every 17 laps or so. I predict that he'll be out of the race in less than 20 laps with "handling" listed as the reason. NASCAR will park him well before he becomes a problem on the track.

You can see the full qualifying results at NASCAR Online.