Matt Kenseth surprised the Sharpie 500 field at Bristol to earn a rare pole. Credit: Austostock

Kenseth wins Sharpie pole; Gordon second

Matt Kenseth earned his first Bud Pole of the season Friday in qualifying for the Sharpie 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway.

Kenseth sped around the track at 127.300 mph for just his second pole in 208 qualifiers. His time of 15.073 seconds bested Jeff Gordon by .012 of a second.

Jeff Gordon knows how to run up front at Bristol Motor Speedway. Credit: Rusty Jarrett/Getty Images

"It's been a while. We've only won two poles," said Kenseth, who is 15th in points. "We won one at Dover a few years ago, so it feels great. It was a great lap. We've got a great car for the race [Saturday] night."

Gordon, who has five career wins at Bristol, had started the past three years from the pole in the Sharpie 500.

"It was pretty fun to beat [Gordon] off the pole because he's always known for being so good here," Kenseth added.

Gordon, 58 points out of 10th place in the Race for the Chase, finished second at 127.199 mph.

"It was a great lap, I'm real happy with it. But I kind of felt like we left a little bit out there," said Gordon, who is 12th in points. "All it took was somebody like Matt Kenseth to put a good lap together."

Still, Gordon feels he is in a good position to make a move in the standings.

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"I really want to come out of here with a strong run and I sure would like that to be a win," he said. "But the focus is just getting the best finish that we possibly can."

Greg Biffle, third in the overall standings, will start fourth. Biffle's speed of 127.014 mph was just behind Dave Blaney at 127.157 mph. Biffle also had the fastest practice session.

Ricky Rudd rounded out the top five at 126.980 mph.

Ryan Newman will try to improve his status in the Chase hunt from the sixth position. Besides Gordon and Biffle, Newman (eighth in the standings) is the only other driver in the top 10 in points to start in the Sharpie 500 top 10.

Rounding out the top 10: Ken Schrader (seventh), Bobby Hamilton Jr. (eighth), Elliott Sadler (ninth) and Kasey Kahne (10th). Sadler also has Chase aspirations, currently sitting 13th, 66 points out of the top 10.

Cup points leader Tony Stewart, forced to his backup after he crashed his primiary car earlier in the day in a practice session, will start 17th. Starting position for the rest of the Chase top 10 is as follows: Jimmie Johnson (29th), Rusty Wallace (20th), Mark Martin (25th), Jeremy Mayfield (16th), Kurt Busch (13th), Carl Edwards (37th) and Jamie McMurray (18th). McMurray, however, will have to drop to the back of the field because he changed the transmission in his Dodge before qualifying.

Dale Jarrett, 11th in the standings, 51 points out of 10th, will start 30th.

Kyle Busch, who won the Busch Series pole earlier in the day, qualified 11th for the Cup race.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.