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| | Friday, November 5 | |||||
| Lineup
AVONDALE, Ariz. -- The first pole of the season for John Andretti was a bittersweet reward.
Andretti beat out three-time Winston Cup champion Jeff Gordon in qualifying on Friday for the Checker Auto Parts-Dura Lube 500K at Phoenix International Raceway.
Despite taking the fourth pole of his stock car career and his first of the season, Andretti's mind was 2,500 miles away in Nazareth, Pa., where his grandfather was being buried on Friday.
Alvise "Gigi" Andretti, father of longtime racing star Mario Andretti and his twin brother, Aldo -- John's father -- died on Tuesday at age 90.
"It's been a real difficult day for me," John Andretti said moments a record lap of 132.714 mph on the nearly flat 1-mile oval. "I'm supposed to be with my family.
"But my family knows racing. My grandfather would have been upset if I had not been here. And my uncle (Mario) said, 'Go win the race for him.'"
Winning the pole could help him to that goal, although nobody has won from a front row start in the 11 Winston Cup races in Phoenix.
Andretti, who drives a Pontiac for Richard Petty's team, wasn't overjoyed about winning the pole anyway.
"Everybody knows the King (Petty) won 200 races," Andretti said. "Does anybody remember how many poles he won? It's wins, not poles, that are going to really change the season for us."
Andretti, who won earlier this year in Martinsville, Va., will go into Sunday's 500-kilometer (312-lap) race 18th in the driver standings.
The top 14 drivers in Friday's qualifying surpassed the previous track record of 131.824, set in 1997 by Bobby Hamilton, the driver Andretti replaced last year at Petty Enterprises.
Gordon, whose speed was 132.670, lost the pole to Andretti by 0.009 seconds.
"That's a surprise," Gordon said. "We weren't even close to that all day and I saw some guys clicking off some incredible laps. I said, `How are they doing that?' I just went out there and drove the heck out of it."
Geoffrey Bodine was third despite a case of flu. After turning his lap of 132.597, Bodine was taken to the infield medical center for some intravenous fluids.
"This morning I felt really bad," he said. "But, actually, I feel pretty good right now. Maybe I got to feeling better after that last practice. We ran good."
The drivers at the top of the championship race were bunched from fourth through sixth, with Mark Martin at 132.592, leader Dale Jarrett at 132.563 and Bobby Labonte at 132.484.
Jarrett leads Labonte by 246 points and Martin by 334. The second-generation driver knows all he has to do to nail down his first title is finish 13th or better in each of the three remaining races.
Jarrett, who won here in 1997, takes nothing for granted.
"Right now, we feel good about what we have," he said. "The race car we have here is a car that has won on these type of racetracks, so we're excited about that and, hopefully, it can be a repeat of 1997."
Rounding out the top 10 in qualifying were Ricky Rudd at 132.475, Ken Schrader at 132.445, Rusty Wallace -- who won last year's rain-shortened Phoenix race -- at 132.368 and Kyle Petty, Andretti's teammate, at 132.207. | ALSO SEE Weber: Five who tried, but fell short
Burton ready to contend for Cup
Labonte taking championship notes
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