{"id":10801,"date":"2012-09-21T13:47:49","date_gmt":"2012-09-21T17:47:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/?p=10801"},"modified":"2012-09-21T22:48:54","modified_gmt":"2012-09-22T02:48:54","slug":"gordon-drives-to-end-winless-streak-at-the-magic-mile","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/2012\/09\/gordon-drives-to-end-winless-streak-at-the-magic-mile\/","title":{"rendered":"Gordon Drives to End Winless Streak at \u2018The Magic Mile\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Five-time champion takes the pole for Sunday\u2019s SYLVANIA 300<\/p>\n

LOUDON, N.H. (Sept. 21, 2012) \u2013 Looks like Jeff Gordon has put Chicagoland firmly in the rearview mirror.<\/p>\n

Less than a week after a 35th-place finish appeared to abandon any momentum Gordon established at the end of the regular season, the five-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion has officially inserted himself back into the Chase for the championship mix.
\n <\/p>\n

The penultimate car in Friday\u2019s qualifying session, Gordon piloted his No. 24 Drive to End Hunger Chevrolet around the 1.058-mile oval in 28.232 seconds (134.911 mph), edging Kyle Busch, the pole-sitter in July\u2019s race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis season we have had a lot of problems, but our cars were really fast,\u201d said Gordon, who will be on the pole for Sunday\u2019s SYLVANIA 300, the second race in the Chase. \u201cIt gave us the confidence to know you can rebound \u2013 you can win at the next track.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s Gordon\u2019s sixth career pole at \u201cThe Magic Mile,\u201d a track he owns three career victories, one of which came from the pole back in 1998, which, coincidently, was the last time he drove into Victory Lane at NHMS.<\/p>\n

Gordon ranks third on the all-time Sprint Cup Series pole list with 72 in 681 career starts.<\/p>\n

Brian Vickers and Carl Edwards round out the top-five, while July winner Kasey Kahne, Paul Menard, Ryan Newman, Martin Truex Jr. and Dave Blaney round out the top-10.<\/p>\n

Points leader Brad Keselowski will start 15th. Other Chasers not among the top-10 qualifiers include Clint Bowyer (12th), Greg Biffle (13th), Dale Earnhardt Jr. (14th), Kevin Harvick (16th), Jimmie Johnson (20th), Matt Kenseth (25th) and Denny Hamlin, who will start 32nd despite being fastest in practice.<\/p>\n

Busch will start on the outside of Row 1 on Sunday. This year\u2019s Chase marks only the third time in Rowdy\u2019s career that he\u2019s not a participant in NASCAR\u2019s premier division playoff.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s definitely no drama once you\u2019re no longer in the Chase,\u201d said Busch. \u201cWe were happy with our run today, but the main difference is when you get out of your car you\u2019re not surrounded by all the cameras.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stewart propelled his victory at New Hampshire last September to a championship, and while he\u2019s avid that it doesn\u2019t necessarily translate to what happens this season, a good starting position at \u201cThe Magic Mile\u201d certainly doesn\u2019t hurt.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a perfect way to start the weekend for sure,\u201d said Stewart. \u201cThe hard thing is it is hard to pass, but when you get 15-20 laps on the tires you can get where you need to go. We won’t have to be the best car get up front.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mike Olsen (North Haverhill, N.H.), who is fulfilling a childhood dream by racing in NASCAR\u2019s top series, qualified 42nd. Olsen is teaming up with lifelong friend Frank Stoddard. The two are the first-ever New Hampshire-born driver-owner\/crew chief combination to start a Sprint Cup Series race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. The No. 32 Ford is locally sponsored by North Country Ford of Lancaster, N.H. The 44-year-old Olsen is a two-time champion in the K&N Pro Series East.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m very honored to have this opportunity,\u201d said Olsen during a pre-race event held earlier this week. \u201cMy goal is to finish all 300 laps and as long as I do that I\u2019ll be happy, no matter where I finish.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gordon would also like to finish all 300 laps, only his goal is a bit loftier.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t make up what we lost last week in one race,\u201d said Gordon. \u201cThis is something we didn’t expect. We expected to be strong in the race, but this was a big one and certainly good timing.\u201d<\/p>\n

A limited number of seats still remain for Sunday SYLVANIA 300. To purchase tickets please call the NHMS ticket hotline at (603) 783-4931 or by visiting www.nhms.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Five-time champion takes the pole for Sunday\u2019s SYLVANIA 300 LOUDON, N.H. (Sept. 21, 2012) \u2013 Looks like Jeff Gordon has put Chicagoland firmly in the rearview mirror. Less than a week after a 35th-place finish appeared to abandon any momentum Gordon established at the end of the regular season, the five-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10801","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10801","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10801"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10801\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10801"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10801"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10801"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}