NASCAR: Historic Bristol pole for Gordon.

[Rory Phoulorie]

Hendrick Motorsports and Jeff Gordon secured the first ever Car of Tomorrow Bud Pole Award by setting the fastest time in qualifying for Sunday's Food City 500 at the Bristol Motor Speedway.

For the second time this year and the 58th time in his career Gordon will bring the field to the green flag in his #24 Chevrolet Impala on Sunday although Sunday's race will be a step into the unknown for everyone on the unforgiving half-mile Bristol bullring.

Gordon's pole position time of 15.295secs (125.453mph) was more than three mph slower than the Bristol track record and although grumbles may still remain over the overall speed, looks and ability to pass with the new cars, everyone was breathing a sigh of relief at the end of an accident-free qualifying session.

Joining Gordon on the front row will be the second �new' car debuting this weekend, the #9 Evernham Motorsports Dodge Avenger of Kasey Kahne. Kahne stopped the clocks in a best time of 15.312secs for his third front row start in five races this year but needs to start translating his qualifying speed into top finishes if he and his team are to avoid falling into the �non top 35' qualifying trap next weekend at Martinsville.

Kahne's teammate Elliott Sadler, currently the only Evernham driver safely in the top 35 in team points, will start third followed by Tony Stewart and the best placed Ford of Roush-Fenway Racing's Jamie McMurray, who also earned his first top 25 start of what has been a disappointing start to the year for the driver of the #26 Crown Royal Ford.

Defending series champion Jimmie Johnson set sixth fastest time as the Nextel Cup powerhouses of Hendrick, Evernham, Gibbs and Roush continued to dominate the sharp end of the field.

Behind the top six though there were signs that the new Car of Tomorrow would help some of the smaller Nextel Cup fry to get on terms with the usual front running suspects.

Dave Blaney gave Toyota their best qualifying result to date with seventh fastest time in the #22 Bill Davis Racing Camry with Haas CNC Racing's Jeff Green setting ninth quickest time. Blaney and Green sandwiched the third Evernham Dodge of Scott Riggs, all three drivers needing a good finish on Sunday to guarantee themselves a starting spot next weekend at Martinsville.

Friday morning practice pacesetter Denny Hamlin rounded out the top ten for Joe Gibbs Racing with Greg Biffle eleventh, series debutant Regan Smith an impressive twelfth in the #01 US Army Chevrolet for Ginn Racing and Martin Truex 13th in the best placed DEI Chevrolet.

Not every one of NASCAR's big guns excelled with the new equipment with Hendrick Motorsports Kyle Busch starting 20th, Penske Racing's Ryan Newman 22nd, Richard Childress Racing's Jeff Burton 29th, Dale Earnhardt Jr 31st, Roush's Matt Kenseth 38th, Daytona 500 winner Kevin Harvick 40th and multiple Bristol winner Kurt Busch only 42nd in the second Penske Dodge.

With many teams still struggling to get to grips with the new machinery, the battle between teams outside the top 35 in team points for a place on the starting grid was elevated well into the top 20 overall. Leading the way for his second start of the season was Morgan McClure Motorsports Ward Burton, who put the #4 State Water Heaters Chevrolet in an impressive 14th place on the grid. BAM Racing's Mike Bliss also successfully qualified for his second race of the year with 19th fastest time while Ginn Racing's Sterling Marlin continued his 100 per cent qualifying record so far this year with 21st fastest time for the #14 Waste Management team.

There was long overdue joy for Jeremy Mayfield and the #36 OTC Bill Davis team as Mayfield finally put the new Toyota into the show at the fifth time of asking. Mayfield will start 23rd on Sunday. Furniture Row Racing's Kenny Wallace was another driver qualifying for his second race of 2007 with the 27th fastest speed in qualifying and will line up two spots behind Brian Vickers in the leading Red Bull Racing entry, who made it into the field for the third time this year.

Dale Jarrett put in his best qualifying performance of the year in the #44 Michael Waltrip Racing Toyota and will start 30th, the first time he hasn't had to rely on the Past Champions provisional so far in 2007. However Jarrett will be the lone MWR representative in Sunday's race after David Reutimann and Michael Waltrip failed to qualify.

Reutimann and Waltrip will be joined on the sidelines by Ginn Racing's Joe Nemechek and Haas CNC Racing's Johnny Sauter, who both failed to qualify for their first race of the year, DEI's Paul Menard and Front Row Motorsports' Kevin Lepage, who was bumped out of the race at the very end of qualifying by Red Bull's AJ Allmendinger, who assured himself of a belated Nextel Cup debut on a day where Red Bull put both their Toyota's into the race for the first time.

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