Gordon Delivers a Record in Familiar Surroundings

SONOMA, Calif. —  Four times in the last seven years Jeff Gordon has won the Nextel Cup road race at Infineon Raceway. Three of those were won from the pole.

The defending champion, who was raised a few miles from east of here in Vallejo, will get another chance to win from the same No. 1 position Sunday in the Dodge/Save Mart 250 after breaking his own track record in qualifying Friday.

As the 48th and final driver to test the 1.99-mile track in the hills of Sears Point, Gordon knew what he had to do. His teammate and protege, Jimmie Johnson, was on the provisional pole with a 94.165-mph average.

Gordon’s response was a track-record 94.325-mph run in his No. 24 DuPont Chevrolet, bettering the 94.303 he posted last year before winning the main event.

“We needed something like this,” said Gordon, a four-time series champion but 12th in the current standings after having failed to finish better than 30th in four of the last five races. “I didn’t really think during my lap that it would get the pole. I tried to be as smooth as possible and not get too aggressive. Sometime that works better than attacking a course like Infineon.”

Gordon and Johnson spoiled a feel-good story by knocking venerable Mark Martin off the front row. Martin, making this a farewell season after 23 years of Cup racing and a winner here in 1997, had turned in a 94.012 lap early in the day and for more than an hour saw driver after driver fail to better it until it was Johnson’s turn.

“I slipped a little bit at the start, I didn’t have the car pointed the way I wanted it to be, but overall it was a great run,” said Martin, the 46-year-old anchor of Jack Roush’s powerful Ford team. “I wasn’t fooled though. I knew Jeff Gordon would beat us. He is a whale of a race car driver and everybody in the garage knows that car is incredible. It drives teams crazy, but that’s the way it is.”

In 15 races of what he calls his Salute Tour, Martin has eight top-10 finishes and was third last week at Michigan.

“The fans have been awesome, every place we’ve been,” he said. “Our performance on the track has been good and that’s made it a little easier handling all the extra stuff. I’m smiling more than I ever have and I’m enjoying it.”

Greg Biffle, the most successful of Martin’s Roush teammates this year, is not smiling, however, after taking an excursion through the sand during his qualifying run. Biffle, who had his fifth win at Michigan last Sunday, will start 41st.

“I’m just thankful that I’ve got the same car back because it was close, real close,” Biffle said. “I was inside there, going ‘whoa.’ ”

Ernie Irvan came from last place to win in 1992, but the track has been tightened up and one-time passing lanes have been cut out. No one else has come from farther back than 11th.