Virginia
500 -
Martinsville
Speedway
Qualifying-
Practice makes perfect.
Just ask Jeff Gordon. Gordon, who tested recently at
Martinsville, grabbed his series leading third pole of the
season. The three-time Winston Cup champion also has three
wins at the tight, narrow, flat track. Jeff rounded the .526
mile speedway in 20.126 seconds (94.087 mph), just besting
Rusty Wallace for the top spot.
"I've only won one
pole here, it's a very difficult place to win poles
at," Gordon said. "In my opinion it's the most
important place to win poles. There's nothing like
having the number one pit stall at
Martinsville." A testing session
two weeks ago definitely helped the team. They knew
they had a good setup, and Jeff Gordon was able to
capitalize on it.
Gordon
has 3 wins at Martinsville
"I knew we had a good car, but I didn't know it'd feel that good. It stuck good, turned real good. I don't know if I could do too much more. I thought it was good enough for the pole, but here you never know."
"All day in practice I had trouble getting into the corner. The tires wanted to lock up. I made sure I didn't overdrive it second lap, that's the one I was really going for. I still over drove it a little bit, but it didn't really affect my speed."
Rusty Wallace, who won nine poles in 2000, will start on the outside of the front row. Jeff Burton, an expected title contender who hasn't cracked the top thirty in points, will start third. Ricky Rudd and Robert Pressley round out the top five.
-Race:
After fading late in
the race, with a setup that didn't perform well under
changing track conditions, Jeff Gordon finished 12th in the
Virginia 500. Dale Jarrett passed teammate Ricky Rudd to win
his 3rd race of the season and lengthen his points lead to
123 points over Gordon.
