Jeff Gordon, who fell out of championship contention last week, scored his first ever pole at Homestead-Miami Speedway and the 200th pole for Hendrick Motorsports. And with that he also announced that he fully intends to pursue the spoiler role in the NASCAR race season finale.
Gordon scored the pole for the Ford EcoBoost 400 with a speed of 180.747 mph and a time of 29.876 seconds. This was his 77th pole in 761 Cup Series races.
“I’m just blown away right now,” the driver of the No. 24 Drive to End Hunger Chevrolet said. “I knew we had a pretty good race car. I committed to the top and it stuck well.”
Gordon also took great pride in being the Hendrick Motorsports driver to score the historic 200th pole for Hendrick Motorsports.
“It’s a great organization,” Gordon said. “We just never quit. We bring great cars and power to the track and that contributes to wins and poles. This is a great achievement to start the weekend and something that we can smile about.”
And finally, Gordon admitted that he has his sights set on being the race winner, boxing out the four final contenders for the championship.
“We want to finish off this season the best way we can,” Gordon said. “We’re disappointed that we are not in the championship hunt but we do want to finish strong, with the pole and a win.”
“I think everybody wants to come in here and spoil the championship by winning this race. We want to be the spoiler, there is no doubt about that.”
Kurt Busch, the driver of the No. 41 Haas Automation Chevrolet, will start the race in the outside of the first row. This was Busch’s 17th top-10 start of the season and his eighth in 14 races at Homestead.
“It was a tremendous set of laps. We came home just a bit shy. Congrats to Jeff Gordon as that was a perfect lap he laid down,” Busch said. “I felt like we laid down a really good lap. To do it with Tony Gibson in our third race together just shows all the signs are pointed in the right direction.”
“I couldn’t be happier.”
Matt Kenseth, behind the wheel of the No. 20 Dollar General Toyota, secured the third starting position for the final race of the season. Kenseth also has winning on his mind to close out the year, something he has not yet accomplished in 2014.
“It was really good. It wasn’t as good as Kurt’s and Jeff’s but it was good,” Kenseth said of his qualifying lap. “It’s always important to run up front and be competitive. That’s what you show up to do every week.”
“The longer you go without a win, the more you think about it,” Kenseth continued. “It would be great to end the season on a positive note.”
The championship contenders Kevin Harvick, Denny Hamlin, and Joey Logano all qualified top-10 in the 5th, 8th, and 9th positions respectively. The final contender Ryan Newman qualified a bit more poorly and will start in the 21st position.
“We had a good day,” Harvick said after qualifying best of all of the championship contenders in fifth. “We should get a good pit stall, have a solid day tomorrow and get prepared for the race.”
“I think today kind of went like most of the year for us, but better,” Hamlin said of his eighth place qualifying run. “We weren’t blazing fast but we had a nice run at the end there. It’s got the feeling as to what it needs to be successful on Sunday.”
“We had an OK day today,” Logano said after qualifying ninth. “We made it through the first round, which surprised the heck out of me. Overall, we qualified decent and the car was a little better in race trim.”
Ryan Newman was the only championship contender that did not advance to the final round of qualifying, with the worst starting position of all of the contenders in the 21st spot. This was also Newman’s worst starting spot since August 3rd at Pocono Raceway.
“It was actually all good,” Newman said. “It wasn’t what we wanted so we start 21st. I don’t think that’s the end of our day. We have 267 laps to get through the field.”
“It’s not where you start, it’s where you stop,” Newman said simply. “It’s going to be a crazy race.”
Brad Keselowski qualified fourth, Clint Bowyer sixth, Kyle Busch seventh, and Martin Truex Jr. had a good effort, qualifying tenth.
The complete qualifying line up is as follows:
2014 NSCS Ford EcoBoost 400 Starting Lineup
| Pos | Car | Driver | Team | Time | Speed |
| 1 | 24 | Jeff Gordon | Drive To End Hunger Chevrolet | 29.876 | 180.747 |
| 2 | 41 | Kurt Busch | Haas Automation Chevrolet | 29.895 | 180.632 |
| 3 | 20 | Matt Kenseth | Dollar General Toyota | 29.951 | 180.294 |
| 4 | 2 | Brad Keselowski | Miller Lite Ford | 30.001 | 179.994 |
| 5 | 4 | Kevin Harvick | Budweiser Chevrolet | 30.009 | 179.946 |
| 6 | 15 | Clint Bowyer | 5-hour Energy Toyota | 30.068 | 179.593 |
| 7 | 18 | Kyle Busch | M&M’s Toyota | 30.087 | 179.48 |
| 8 | 11 | Denny Hamlin | FedEx Express Toyota | 30.109 | 179.348 |
| 9 | 22 | Joey Logano | Shell Pennzoil Ford | 30.124 | 179.259 |
| 10 | 78 | Martin Truex Jr. | Furniture Row Chevrolet | 30.156 | 179.069 |
| 11 | 88 | Dale Earnhardt Jr. | National Guard Chevrolet | 30.28 | 178.336 |
| 12 | 48 | Jimmie Johnson | Lowe’s Chevrolet | 30.563 | 176.684 |
| 13 | 55 | Brian Vickers | Aaron’s Dream Machine Toyota | 30.167 | 179.004 |
| 14 | 51 | Justin Allgaier # | BRANDT Chevrolet | 30.178 | 178.938 |
| 15 | 99 | Carl Edwards | Fastenal Ford | 30.201 | 178.802 |
| 16 | 27 | Paul Menard | Richmond/Menards Chevrolet | 30.202 | 178.796 |
| 17 | 9 | Marcos Ambrose | Stanley Ford | 30.205 | 178.778 |
| 18 | 43 | Aric Almirola | Smithfield Foods Ford | 30.235 | 178.601 |
| 19 | 1 | Jamie McMurray | Cessna Chevrolet | 30.235 | 178.601 |
| 20 | 16 | Greg Biffle | 3M Ford | 30.256 | 178.477 |
| 21 | 31 | Ryan Newman | Caterpillar Chevrolet | 30.296 | 178.241 |
| 22 | 17 | Ricky Stenhouse Jr. | Fastenal Ford | 30.344 | 177.959 |
| 23 | 5 | Kasey Kahne | Great Clips Chevrolet | 30.375 | 177.778 |
| 24 | 3 | Austin Dillon # | Dow Chevrolet | 30.392 | 177.678 |
| 25 | 47 | AJ Allmendinger | Hungry Jack Chevrolet | 30.298 | 178.23 |
| 26 | 21 | Trevor Bayne(i) | Motorcraft/Quick Lane Tire & Auto Center Ford | 30.314 | 178.136 |
| 27 | 42 | Kyle Larson # | Target Chevrolet | 30.315 | 178.13 |
| 28 | 14 | Tony Stewart | Bass Pro Shops/Mobil 1 Chevrolet | 30.333 | 178.024 |
| 29 | 13 | Casey Mears | GEICO Chevrolet | 30.39 | 177.69 |
| 30 | 33 | Brian Scott(i) | Shore Lodge Chevrolet | 30.476 | 177.189 |
| 31 | 34 | David Ragan | The Pete Store Ford | 30.489 | 177.113 |
| 32 | 10 | Danica Patrick | Florida Lottery/GoDaddy Chevrolet | 30.496 | 177.072 |
| 33 | 40 | Landon Cassill(i) | Harvey Gulf Chevrolet | 30.622 | 176.344 |
| 34 | 83 | JJ Yeley(i) | Dip Your Car Toyota | 30.629 | 176.304 |
| 35 | 38 | David Gilliland | MDS Transport Ford | 30.672 | 176.056 |
| 36 | 36 | Reed Sorenson | Feed The Children/Dei Fratelli Chevrolet | 30.745 | 175.638 |
| 37 | 98 | Josh Wise | PPR98.com Chevrolet | Owner Points | |
| 38 | 95 | Michael McDowell | KLOVE Radio/Thrivent Financial Ford | Owner Points | |
| 39 | 7 | Michael Annett # | Pilot/Flying J Chevrolet | Owner Points | |
| 40 | 32 | Blake Koch(i) | LeafFilter.com Ford | Owner Points | |
| 41 | 23 | Alex Bowman # | Dip Your Car Toyota | Owner Points | |
| 42 | 26 | Cole Whitt # | Speed Stick Gear Toyota | Owner Points | |
| 43 | 66 | Brett Moffitt | X8 Energy Gum Toyota | Owner Points |
(i) Ineligible for Driver Points in this Series, # Denotes Rookie, * Required to Qualify on Time.
Source: Timing and Scoring provided by NASCAR Media/NASCAR Statistics
